Error rate expression for perpendicular magnetic recording

An expression for estimating error rate in a perpendicular magnetic recording system is developed. The probability of error is estimated for a dominant dibit error event. Noise includes stationary white Gaussian head/electronics noise and nonstationary colored medium transition noise. Error rate is determined for a variety of parameter changes. In particular, it is shown how two systems with the same total signal-to-noise ratio can have different error rates. Expansion of the model to include additional signal and noise effects as well as the evalation of different error events is discussed. Index Terms--Error rate, head/electronics noise, medium transition noise, perpendicular magnetic recording.