CMRR REPORT WINTER•20021

epoportCenter for Magnetic Recording Research ReportReportR

plied the resources to videotape thesymposium proceedings, as well asinterviews with many of the speakers,for use in a pair of UCSD-TV docu-mentaries highlighting the enormousimpact of Shannon’s genius.

The acquisition of the sculptureand the organization of the ShannonSymposium were spearheaded byProfessor Jack K. Wolf, a member of the Electrical and ComputerEngineering department in theJacobs School of Engineering, andholder of one of the four CMRRendowed chairs.

The Shannon Symposium programincluded invited technical presenta-tions and personal reflections byfourteen information theorists fromindustry and academia, includingCMRR Director Paul Siegel andUCSD Professor Alon Orlitsky. Many of the speakers themselveshave made enormous contributionsto the astounding advances intelecommunications that have trans-formed our world in the past half-century. Among them were six recipi-ents of the prestigious Claude E.Shannon Award, the highest techni-cal honor bestowed upon an individ-ual by the IEEE Information TheorySociety. The Shannon Award, which

Shannon Symposium and Statue Dedication at CMRR

CONTENTS

t 2 PM on October 16,2001, a statue of ClaudeElwood Shannon, theFather of Information

Theory, was dedicated in the lobby ofthe Center for Magnetic RecordingResearch (CMRR) at the Universityof California, San Diego. In conjunc-tion with the dedication, a sympo-sium honoring Shannon’s life andwork was held on October 15th and the morning of October 16th.The symposium and dedication ceremony were attended by approxi-mately 100 persons, many of themUCSD students.

Generous sup-port for bothevents, includinga live webcast ofthe symposium,was provided bythe CaliforniaInstitute of Tele-communicationsand InformationTechnology(Cal(IT)2) at UC,San Diego. TheJacobs School ofEngineering andUCSD-TV sup-

A

Number 19 WINTER • 2002

continued on page 2

1 Shannon Symposium &Statue Dedication

3 Director’s Message

4 Cal (IT)2 Workshop onNon-Volatile Memory

5 CMRR Research Review

Research Highlights

6 Recent Gifts, Grants,Awards, and Internships

7 Honors and Awards

Ph.D.’s Awarded

8 New Visitors

9 UCSD Open House

10 Guzik Tester

11 Obituary for Peter McEwen

12 Current CMRR Sponsors

Univers i ty of Cal i fornia , San Diego ISSN: 0888-73381

OCTOBER 16, 2001, SHANNON STATUE UNVEILING. LEFT TO RIGHT: DEANROBERT CONN, SCULPTOR EUGENE DAUB, SHANNON STATUE, DR. IRWINJACOBS, VICE CHANCELLOR MARSHA CHANDLER, HOST JACK WOLF

The bronze plaque on the pedestalof this statue reads:

CLAUDE ELWOOD SHANNON 1916-2001,

Father of Information Theory His formulation of the mathematicaltheory of communication provided

the foundation for the developmentof data storage and transmission

systems that launched the information age.

Dedicated October 16, 2001, Eugene Daub, Sculptor

As depicted in the sculpture,Shannon holds in his left hand asheet of paper. On this sheet isinscribed a formula taken fromShannon’s landmark 1948 paper, “A Mathematical Theory ofCommunication,” that is universallyacknowledged to be the genesis ofinformation theory. The formula,selected by Jack Wolf for its rele-vance to both digital data recordingand transmission, gives the capacityof a discrete noisy channel:

C = Max (H(x) - Hy(x)).Be sure to enjoy the sculpture that

now graces the CMRR lobby on your next visit, and look for the symposium proceedings and furtherdetails about the UCSD-TV docu-mentaries on the CMRR andCal(IT)2 websites.

CMRR REPORT WINTER•20022

Shannon Symposium and Statue Dedication at CMRR

continued from page 1

Prof. Wolf himself received in 2001,is given annually in recognition of consistent and profound contribu-tions to the field of information theory.

The Symposium speakers and theirpresentation titles were as follows:

The dedication ceremony that fol-lowed the Symposium, hosted by JackWolf, included remarks from UCSDSenior Vice Chancellor MarshaChandler; UCSD Professor andDirector of the San Diego Division ofthe Cal(IT)2 Ramesh Rao; and

Jacobs School ofEngineering DeanRobert Conn. Thenext speaker,Qualcomm Chairmanand CEO - and formerUCSD faculty mem-ber - Dr. Irwin Jacobs,commented on theenormous impact ofShannon’s work uponcommunications andshared a fascinatinghistorical tidbit,namely that in 1967Claude Shannon wasnamed a Fellow ofMuir College atUCSD. SculptorEugene Daub con-cluded with remarksabout the creativeprocess from whichemerged his beautifuland moving work ofart. Finally, to thedelight of all in atten-dance, the bust wasunveiled by RachelWolf, Jack Wolf ’sgranddaughter.

Toby Berger, “Living Systems are ShannonOptimum Without Coding”

Paul Siegel, “The Continuing Miracle ofInformation Storage Technology”

Jacob Ziv and Alon Orlitsky, “Universal DataCompression”

David Neuhoff, “Time Stamp Coding-A ProblemShannon Did Not Answer”

Thomas Cover, “The Value of State Informationin Communications and Data Compression”

G. David Forney Jr., “Approaching ChannelCapacity”

Edward van der Meulen, “The Duality BetweenSuccessive Refinement of Information by Source Coding with a Fidelity Constraint andEfficient Multilevel Channel Coding Under Cost Constraints”

Robert Lucky, “Impact of Shannon on ModernTelecommunications”

Ian Blake, “Randomness and Determination inCoding Theory”

Andrew Viterbi, “Quantized Iterative Decodingwith Closed-Form Density Evolution Recursions for LDPC Codes on the AWGNChannel”

Solomon Golomb, “The Claude Shannon IKnew”

Elwyn Berlekamp, “Shannon’s Work on BlockCode Performance and It’s Impact”

Shu Lin, “Construction of Low Density ParityCheck Codes: Combinatorial Approaches”

Robert McEliece “The Generalized DistributiveLaw (with Loops) and Free Energy Minimization”

CLAUDE ELWOOD SHANNON1916-2001

Father of Information Theory

he CMRR newsletter isback! The revival of thenewsletter is part of theCenter’s overall effort to

more effectively communicate withour partners in industry and in gov-ernment agencies, to more activelyengage with our many alumni/ae, andto more clearly articulate to the gen-eral public the importance of infor-mation storage technology in today’snetworked infrastructure. To thisend, the newsletter will highlightimportant research developments,offer background on new technicalinitiatives, showcase students andresearchers, and provide news forand about CMRR alumni/ae.

This semi-annual publication isintended to complement the otherresources that CMRR provides to ourpartners for information about theCenter’s progress: the Spring and FallResearch Reviews, the CMRRInformation Center, and the CMRRWebsite. (The newsletter will also beposted on our Website athttp://www.ucsd.edu/cmrr)

During the past 18 months, theCenter has not only maintained itsstrength in core research areas, butalso expanded into new areas vital tothe future of magnetic recording.

Our Fiscal Year 2000-2001 researchbudget was close to $2.5M, includingcontributions from our industrialpartners, federal and state fundingagencies, and the University ofCalifornia. We have supported collab-orations with affiliated UCSD facultyin Computer Science andEngineering (SMART - drive failureprediction), Electrical and ComputerEngineering (coding for optical fiberchannels for storage networks),Mechanical and AerospaceEngineering (servo control), andPhysics (magnetic semiconductorsand magnetic nanoparticles). TheNational Security Agency (NSA) issponsoring a particularly timelyresearch project addressing two seem-ingly opposite objectives - secure era-sure of information on disks andtapes, and recovery of informationfrom “erased” storage devices.

CMRR faculty and scientists areactive participants in the NationalStorage Industry Consortium (NSIC)research programs, with several proj-ects now being funded by theExtremely High Density Recording(EHDR) “Terabit per square inch”project and the TAPE project. TheCenter is also playing an active rolein, and benefiting from, the evolutionof the California Institute forTelecommunications and InformationTechnology, or Cal(IT)2, whichrecently celebrated its first anniver-sary. The Institute sponsored aWorkshop on Non-Volatile Memory(organized by CMRR AffiliatedFaculty Professor Frances Hellmanof Physics), the Shannon Symposiumand Statue Dedication (organized byCMRR Professor Jack Wolf), and aSummer Undergraduate ResearchFellow. The Institute is also fosteringand providing support for evolvingCMRR collaborations withresearchers in Physics and in the SanDiego Supercomputer Center.

In this issue of the newsletter, youwill find articles about several of

these activities, as well as profiles ofsome of our visiting students andresearchers. You will also learn ofprofessional and technical recogni-tion received by our faculty, researchscientists, and students, includingJack Wolf ’s selection by the IEEEInformation Theory Society as therecipient of the prestigious 2001Claude E. Shannon Award, andUCSD senior Heidi Buck’s first prizein the ECE Department’s undergrad-uate research conference for herCMRR research project. And there ismore that I believe will be of interestand value to you, as well.

In closing, let me thank you foryour interest in CMRR. Informationstorage technology is a vital pillar -along with communications andcomputing - in the evolving net-worked infrastructure that will be thefoundation of our global society. Theresearch and educational programs atCMRR have a proud tradition, com-bining technical innovation in mag-netic recording with a commitmentto produce creative, motivated, andskilled graduates who will acceleratethe evolution of storage technologyfrom positions in industry, govern-ment labs, and academia.

The future holds both opportunityand challenge for CMRR, as it doesfor the data storage industry as awhole. We are delighted to be in astrong position to contribute to whatI like to refer to as the “continuingmiracle of information storage tech-nology.”

I hope that our corporate and gov-ernmental sponsors will continue torecognize the enormous value - tothem, the storage industry, and socie-ty as a whole - that derives from theirinvestment in CMRR.

Enjoy the newsletter!

— Paul H. Siegel, Director

F R O M T H E D I R E C T O R

CMRR REPORT WINTER•023

T

CMRR REPORT WINTER•20024

rances Hellman, Professorof Physics at UCSD andCMRR Affiliated Facultymember, organized and

hosted the Cal-(IT)2 Workshop onNon-Volatile Memory, held at CMRR,September 21-22, 2001. The objec-tive of the workshop was to develop aplan for collaborative research, inpartnership with industry, in the areaof advanced non-volatilememory technologies. Ablue-chip roster ofspeakers from leadingcompanies in the infor-mation storage industrydelivered stimulatingtechnical presentationsto a group of more than50 academic and indus-trial researchers. Amongthe speakers were repre-sentatives of SeagateTechnology and IBM,two of the foundingsponsors of CMRR andboth vital partners incollaborative research ever since.

The audience included 14 facultymembers from UC Irvine and UC SanDiego, including 3 from CMRR, rep-resenting the Materials and Deviceslayer and the NetworkedInfrastructure layer within Cal-(IT)2.“The institute recognizes the impor-tance of putting academics and busi-ness researchers together,” saidHellman. “It quickly became clearthat there are a number of areaswhere our research can complementwhat industry is doing, especially ontechnologies that won’t be commer-cial for a few more years.”

In welcoming workshop partici-pants, Cal-(IT)2 director Larry Smarrsaid that the institute’s buildings at

UC Irvine and UC San Diego arebeing designed to enhance research inkey areas for materials and devices.“Opto-electronics, quantum comput-ing and communications, non-volatilememories, and materials research areall core competencies for Cal-(IT)2,”said Smarr. “Non-volatile memory hasa major role to play in a future wherebillions of wireless sensors and other

devices will be gathering, storing,transmitting and even processing vastamounts of information.”

UCSD Professor Ivan Schullerupdated attendees on basic researchissues related to the future of magnet-ics, urging scientists to “follow yournose! Don’t let applications or imme-diate business dictate where you lookfor the answers.” Schuller alsoadvised researchers to “push limits”-tosmaller sizes, more complex materials,using state of the art technologies,and exploring unusual geometries.Looking out ten years, the leader ofCal-(IT)2’s Materials

and Devices group at UCSD (hiscounterpart at UC Irvine is ProfessorG.P. Li) said the technology frontier

will involve self-assembly, nanomag-netism, and “spintronics” (spin elec-tronics). Added Schuller: “If you look20 years into the future, you’re talk-ing about quantum magnetics, work-ing at the molecular level, and quan-tum computing.”

After Schuller’s presentation,Dieter Weller, director of mediaresearch at Pittsburgh-based Seagate

Technology, expand-ed on “The Futureof MagneticRecording.”“Magnetic recordingwill not be dis-lodged in the fore-seeable future,” hesaid. “It is a verylow-cost method ofstoring vastamounts of datawith almost no com-petition. Magneticrecording is hard tocompete with froma capacity perspec-

tive as well as from a technologymaturity perspective. At the moment,recording densities of about 100Gigabits per square inch have beendemonstrated. We think we can pushthe technology up to perhaps 150-200Gigabits per square inch using con-ventional longitudinal [technology],then we may move to perpendicularrecording pushing toward 500Gigabits per square inch or higher. Atterabit per square inch areal densitiesa bit cell is only 25 nano-meters onthe side. We are eventually approach-ing the point where we have single-,as opposed to multiple-particle-per-bitrecording. At Seagate we are veryinterested in novel media approaches.

Cal (IT)2 Workshop on Non-Volatile Memory

“The institute recognizes the importance of put-

ting academics and business researchers together.

It quickly became clear that there are a number

of areas where our research can complement what

industry is doing, especially on technologies that

won’t be commercial for a few more years.”

— Frances Hellman

F

continued on page 10

CMRR REPORT WINTER•20025

CMRR hosted members ofthe CMRR IndustrialSponsor companies andspecial invited guests atthe semi-annual Research

Review and Advisory Council meet-ing on October 17-18. The two daysof talks highlighted the work of theCMRR researchers and graduate stu-dents. The Wednesday agendabegan with talks on SignalProcessing for Recording from Prof.Jack Wolf’s group, followed by pre-sentations on Coding andModulation by members of Prof.Paul Siegel's group. The afternoonactivities began with a special ses-sion featuring a talk on StorageSystems and Networks by ChaitanyaBaru and Phil Andrews, Program Co-Directors, Data and Knowledge

CMRR Research Review

Systems Program, San DiegoSuperComputer Center.

Dr. Gordon Hughes discussedIntelligent Disk Drives, and Prof. AmiBerkowitz's group ended the firstday's session with presentations onMagnetic Materials and Devices. Lateafternoon and evening activitiesincluded tours of the CMRR laborato-ries, private discussions with studentsand researchers, and dinner. TheAdvisory Council meeting followed.Day two began with presentations onRecording Physics andMicromagnetics by members of Prof.Neal Bertram's group, followed bytalks on Tribology and Mechanicsfrom Prof. Frank Talke's group. The

meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.,however guests were invited to stayfor optional lab tours, private dis-cussions, and the IEEE San DiegoMagnetics Society Chapter meeting.Guest speaker, Nick Rizzo, fromMotorola Labs, gave a presentationentitled "Magnetoresistive RandomAccess Memory - 256kb MRAMWafer Progress.”

The next CMRR semi-annualResearch Review is scheduled for May 22-23, 2002.

CMRR Industrial Sponsor companyemployees may contact Cheryl Hacker(858-534-6563 or chacker@ucsd.edu)to ensure that your name appears onour invitation list

S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring andReporting Technology) is aUCSD/CMRR research program toimprove the failure warning technolo-gy currently built into disk drives.Long term goals include drive reliabili-ty improvement by SMART technolo-gy assessment of individual drives during their manufacturing final test,and by building expert systems forcomputerized failure analysis. Theprogram is described in the SMARTweb site at cmrr.ucsd.edu/smart and is sponsored by the UCSDInformation Storage Industry Center,a Sloan Foundation Center.

The research program works withdisk drive manufacturers on their

SMART technology, to assist them inenhancing their failure warning accuracy and warning time, whilereducing false alarms from gooddrives. Experimental SMART failurewarning data is analyzed by data mining and pattern recognition statistical techniques.

Significant opportunities exist forSMART enhancements. Its maximumfailure warning accuracy is estimatedto be about 30% overall in the diskdrive industry today. Disk drive fieldreturn rates are about 1% per year,and more than one-third of these arefalse alarms. The drive checks outokay. The SMART false alarm rateneeds to be kept at 0.1%-0.2% to

minimize the number of good drivesreturned, while maintaining maximumaccuracy.

Improved SMART prediction meth-ods have been developed at CMRRthat achieve the maximum accuracypossible, at these low false alarmrates. They are simple to implement indisk drive internal firmware.

Research Highlights

CMRR REPORT WINTER•20026

National Storage Industry Consor-tium (NSIC) grant to Paul Siegelas part of the Extremely HighDensity Recording (EHDR) 1Terabit-per-square-inch program.The project title is "Error ControlCoding for Terabit per SquareInch Recording." The researchaddresses performance and imple-mentation issues for enhancederror-correction coding schemes,particularly soft-decision Reed-Solomon decoding algorithms.

NSIC grant to Neal Bertram, PaulSiegel and Jack Wolf as part ofthe EHDR 1 Terabit-per-square-inch program. The project title is"Software Development of a DataStream Simulator forPerpendicular Recording atDensities of 300 Gbit-per-square-inch and Beyond." The purpose ofthe study is to develop a data sim-ulator that can rapidly generatelarge streams of playback pulseswhile incorporating realistic physi-cal models of the perpendicularrecording process.

Prof. Frank Talke and Dr. FredSpada have each recentlyreceived continued funding fromNSIC under their Program inAdvanced Magnetic Tape StorageTechnology. Prof. Talke’s researchcenters on the “Investigation ofTape Edge Wear,” which address-es the characteristics of tape edgedefects and tape edge wear as afunction of tape velocity, tape lat-eral guide force, local contactpressure, mechanical properties ofthe guide pad, and thickness oftape substrate and tape magnetic coating.

Dr. Spada’s research involves the“Contribution of ElectrochemicalProcesses to Increased Head-Media Spacing in Tape Drives.” Itis expected that the results of thestudies will identify potential elec-trochemical incompatibilitiesamong the tape/environment andcandidate head materials that can contribute to increased magneticspacing during operation.

Prof. Ami Berkowitz has recentlyreceived funding from theLawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory, IAP Research, Inc.,and a Multi University ResearchInitiative (MURI) funded by theONR via the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology.

The Livermore project’s objective isto eliminate chard formation dur-ing the spark erosion of Terfenol.Prof Berkowitz’s group will inves-tigate two approaches to elimi-nate this problem. The first is toproduce very short (<1 millisec-ond) pulses for the spark erosionin order to drastically reduce thestrained area. The secondapproach is to use the chardsand/or small Terfenol particlesformed by milling and subjectthem to arcing in argon in a con-fined Delrin cell with 60 Hz powersource. This process is referred toas “refrying” the Terfenol.

The IAP Research project calls forthe selection of appropriate mag-net powder compositions suitablefor high frequency applications(<100 MHz) and preparation ofpowders using a spark erosionprocess.

Prof. Berkowitz’s MURI projectcoordinates the magnetic andstructural characterization ofspark-eroded FerromagneticShape Memory Alloy particles.

IBM has recently awarded Prof. NealBertram both a 2001 IBM FacultyPartnership Award, and an IBMFellowship Award.

The Faculty Partnership Awardinvolves computer simulations ofUltra High Speed Magnetization Reversal in Magnetic RecordingHeads. The research will develop a code that focuses on the headtip region where the recordingfield emanates. The numericalproblem involves incorporatingintrinsic magnetization dynamicswith the effects of the materialconductivity.

The Fellowship Award supports ZhenJin, a Bertram graduate studentresearcher for the 2001-2002 nine-month academic year. MaryDoerner will act as the technicalliaison and main point of contactat IBM. The fellowship will sup-port Zhen’s research on the roleof medium microstructural designon system performance.

The National Security Agencyhas awarded a contract to Dr. Gordon Hughes for a continu-ing disk erasure study. The projectwill support the implementationof the “Security Erase” technolo-gy that CMRR has developed,whereby disk drives containingconfidential material can beerased in a manner assuring com-plete destruction of all prior recorded information(“shredding electronic data”).After a drive reports a successfulSecurity Erase (“SE”) completion,there should be no technique thatwould permit recovery of theinformation.

Recent Gifts, Grants, Awards, and Internships

CMRR REPORT WINTER•20027

HONORS AND AWARDS

Ph.D.’s Awarded

Two former graduate students in Prof. NealBertram’s research group have recently beenawarded their Ph.D. degrees.

Hong Zhou’s Ph.D. research stud-ies involved performing large-scalenumerical simulations of the mag-netic recording process. The focuswas the effect of granular interac-tions, both exchange and magneto-static, on signals, noise, and ther-mal decay. He studied longitudinal(current media), both planar ran-dom and oriented, and proposedperpendicular recording for densi-ties above 100Gbit/in2. He foundoptimal medium magnetic parame-ters for these three types ofrecording. After leaving CMRR,Hong was employed by SeagateResearch in Pittsburgh.

Alfred Liu completed his Ph.D.degree in December 2000 andcontinued as a postdoc with Prof.Bertram until February 2001. Hedid a TA ship with UCSD’sPhysics Department until June2001. Alfred focused during hisPh.D. studies on micromagneticeffects in thin films, including theeffects of finite temperature. Heapplied these models to explainmeasurements of experimentalgroups at UCSD. The areas wereswitching mechanisms in multilay-ered soft thin films and tempera-ture effects in thin granular films.He concluded his thesis with atheoretical study to explain detailsof the magnetization susceptibilityat a reversal point.

June 2001

Prof. Jack Keil Wolf, recipient ofthe 2001 Claude E. Shannon Awardof the IEEE Information TheorySociety, delivered the ShannonLecture at the 2001 IEEEInternational Symposium onInformation Theory, which was heldin Washington, D.C., June 24-29,2001. The title of his lecture was"Constrained Sequences, CrosswordPuzzles and Shannon." The ClaudeE. Shannon award is the highesthonor bestowed by the IEEEInformation Theory Society inrecognition of consistent and pro-found contributions to the field ofinformation theory.

March 2001

Heidi Buck, a senior in Prof. JackWolf’s ECE 155B Digital RecordingProjects class, Winter Quarter 2001,shared first prize at the ECEUndergraduate ResearchKonference and Assembly (EURE-KA), which was held at CMRR,March 16, 2001. Her project wasentitled "Investigation of ChannelNoise Variance Estimation on TurboDecoder Performance."

January 2002

The IEEE Fellow Committee hasnamed Senior Member James U.Lemke to Fellow Grade effectiveJanuary 1, 2002. Dr. Lemke, a long-time friend to CMRR, was recognized for his “contributions tomagnetic recording for computerdata storage.”

CMRR REPORT WINTER•20028

Yun Jun Tang from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences will spendthe next year with Prof. Ami Berkowitz’s research group. Dr. Tangreceived his Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995/6,and was an Alexander von Humboldt fellow from 1997 - 1999 atKaiserslautern University. He was a visiting scholar for one year, in2000, at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technologybefore returning to the Chinese Academy of Sciences where he isan Associate Professor.

Dr. Tang will be working on two programs in the Berkowitz laboratory. He will becarrying out the magnetic and structural characterization of the ferromagnetic-shape—memory-alloy (FSMA) particles that CMRR will be producing by spark erosionunder the MURI-FSMA program. He will also be involved with the preparation andprocessing of these materials. The second program is an investigation of finite sizeeffects in antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic nanoparticles, which will be carriedout in collaboration with Prof. Frances Hellman of the Physics Department. Dr. Tangwill be responsible for the heat capacity measurements that are the heart of theinvestigation. The nanoparticles will be supplied from IBM Watson Research Center,Yorktown Heights, and Dr.Tang will be characterizing the magnetic and structuralproperties of these materials, as well as preparing suitable samples for the heat capac-ity measurements.

Dr. Tang’s wife, Jing Xu, and son Owen will join him later this year.

CMRR WELCOMES NEW VISITORS

Andreas Hanke and Matthias Panzer joined Prof.Frank Talke’s group in September. Both Andreasand Matthias received their pre-Diploma certifi-cate from the University of Rostock in 1999 andare enrolled as graduate students in mechanicalengineering under the advisement of Prof.Christoph Worernle in collaboration with Prof. Talke. Andreas’focus is on structural mechanics and engineering dynamics, while

Matthias is specializing in engineering dynamics and vehicle engineering.

Eirik Rosnes Visiting scholar, from the University of Bergen, Norway,will be working jointly with Profs. Paul Siegel and Jack Wolf andtheir research groups through February 2002. Eirik has both a bach-elor’s and master’s in Physics from the University of Bergen and iscurrently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in the Department ofInfomatics, under the supervision of Øyvind Ytrehus. Some of youmay remember that Øyvind was a visiting scholar at CMRR from July1998 to June 30, 1999. Eirik’s research will focus on parallel concate-

nated convolutional codes (“turbo codes”) and high rate component codes. Besides hisresearch, Eirik says that he likes to both play and watch soccer.

CMRR REPORT WINTER•20029

Alexandre Graell i Amat will be working jointly with Profs. PaulSiegel and Jack Wolf and their research groups through August2002. Alex holds double master’s degrees in electrical engineering,one from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya and the otherfrom the Politecnico di Torino. Alex’s research activities at CMRR willbe related to the field of iterative decoding for magnetic recordingchannels. Alex is a Ph.D. student of Prof. Sergio Benedetto atPolitecnico de Torino, Italy. Alex is quick to point out that although

he is studying in Italy, he is in fact Spanish.

The University ofCalifornia, San Diegocelebrated its 40thanniversary at the home-coming celebration and

open house on October 20 from9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. CMRRjoined the celebration and enter-tained and educated visitors withthe following activities.

Fred Jeffers, the MagneticMagician, presented his MagneticsMagic Show in the CMRR auditori-um. Fred demonstrated real mag-netic physics, doing seeminglyimpossible things. Many of theeffects demonstrated are at firstcompletely inexplicable, even toexperts. No slight of hand isinvolved. Each trick is based on realphysics, and many serve to intro-duce and “bring to life” importantconcepts in magnetics. The goal ofhis talk is not only to entertain andmystify, but also to teach. Unlike allother magicians, this “MagneticMagician” explained how each trickworks and outlined the basicphysics involved. Fred’s show issuitable for any audience, from thegrade school level through the mostexpert.

Ryan Taylor, a graduate studentin Prof. Frank Talke’s group, pre-sented a lecture entitled “Design ofa Hard Disk Drive.” The audiencelearned that magnetic recording isnow the dominant information stor-age medium in the world. Membersof the audience were asked toremember that less than 10 yearsago, if you wanted to look some-thing up in an old newspaper, youwould go to the public library andlook it up on microfiche film. In1956, IBM introduced the world’sfirst magnetic hard disk for datastorage. IBM’s first hard disk storedabout 2,000 bits of data per squareinch and had a purchase price ofabout $10,000 per megabyte. By2001, storage capacity is nearing100 billion bits of data per squareinch and the cost of storing amegabyte has dropped to aroundone hundredth of one cent. Visitorswere asked to have a look at someof the science used to advance thistechnology to its present state.

CMRR Director Paul Siegel andProf. Jack Wolf gave demonstrationsof recording equipment from pastages. Demonstrations of a 1947Majestic Radio & Television Corp.

Wire Recorder Radio PhonographCombination, a circa 1905 EdisonCylinder Phonograph, and a uniqueDecca Portable Phonograph weregiven, followed by comparisons ofmodern technology including R-DAT, DCC and the ubiquitousaudio CD. The Majestic was donat-ed to CMRR by Sam Arn, and wasrestored to near mint condition byDave Buck and daughter Heidi.

There were many other activitiesincluding: samples of “Scientific IceCream” (made by freezing theingredients with liquid nitrogen)were served to visitors in theCMRR lobby, tours of the CMRRlabs were provided, lots of postersof CMRR’s on-going research activ-ities were on display, and an infor-mation table was set up on LibraryWalk to acquaint visitors withCMRR’s activities and to pointguests in the right direction to joinin the fun at CMRR.

The open house was well attend-ed campus-wide, and CMRR hadapproximately 100 visitors through-out the day,

Open House

CMRR REPORT WINTER•200210

One example is self-assembly of mag-netic nano-particles with lengthscales in the 3-10 nm range. Writingand reading such small magneticislands, however, will be extremelychallenging.

We need a lot of innovation.Eventually, some kind of probingtechnology will be required: it couldbe based on spintronics effects, tun-neling mechanisms, magnetic force

detection or perhaps advanced highsensitivity giant-magneto-resistancesensors.”

Several groups have proposedMEMS based probe storage devicesinvolving an x-y media stage and anarray of individually actuated probetips. Such devices could providefaster access to data than convention-al rotating magnetic storage, yet pro-vide large capacities at relatively lowcost. They would be intermediate in

The Guzik tester consists of two parts: the spinstand (S-1701B) and theassociated read/write electronics (RWA-2585S and ANA-985B). The spin-stand is capable of micropositioning repeatability of greater than 0.3microinches and selectable embedded servo for high TPI track following.The electronics package includes a proprietary Guzik PRML channel fordata rates up to 1 Gb/sec as well as an adaptor board for accepting third-party commercial R/W channels. The system also includes a built-in digitaloscilloscope and spectrum analyzer.

Standard parametric magnetic recording tests are integrated into thesoftware in addition to advanced bit error rate tests through either theGuzik or commercial R/W channel. Initially, the spinstand will be used forstudying the noise characteristics of advanced heads and media as well asmeasuring bit-error-rate versus signal-to-noise-ratio for various read chan-nel designs with perpendicular magnetic recording systems. The heads andmedia used with the spinstand are donated by CMRR sponsor companies.

the storage hierarchy, bridging thespace between the fast but expensiveDRAM and the massive and low-cost magnetic storage. The mediacould be non-magnetic, e.g. ferro-electric or polymer materials. “AtSeagate Research, we are interestedin all these areas,” added Weller.“Our philosophy is to place ‘some’effort inside our own research labo-ratory, where researchers work onvarious approaches, materials andphenomena and stay in touch withwhat’s happening on the outside.The further out we go, the more wehave to rely on partners and acade-mia.”

Also making presentations at theSeptember 21 session were twoindustry researchers who focused onMRAM development: NVE’s JimDaughton, on “MRAM: Status andOpportunities”; and Motorola’s BradEngel, on “Prototype 256-kbitMRAM.” The workshop concludedSeptember 22 with presentations byStuart Parkin, an IBM Fellow at theIBM Almaden Research Center, on“Magnetic Tunneling Junctions andMagnetic Memory”; Joachim Ahner,Seagate Technology, on “NovelImaging Technology and PotentialMultiple Probe Storage Devices”;and Ramamoorthy Ramesh,University of Maryland, on “Ferro-electric Memories: Science,Technology and Beyond.”

After the workshop, organizerFrances Hellman was upbeat aboutthe prospects of increased futurecooperation between UC faculty,students and industrial partners.“We will now work on a researchagenda to meet some of the chal-lenges outlined by industryresearchers,” said Hellman.

For more detailed information onthe Workshop, including copies ofthe speakers’ presentations, pleasevisit the Cal-(IT)2 website at:http://www.calit2.net/events/2001/nvm/9-21-nonvolatile.html

The Wolf Group purchases a State-of-the-Art Guzik Tester

continued from page 4

JASON GOLDBERG, MEMBER OF THE WOLF GROUP

University in 1990.Dr. McEwen joinedQuantumCorporation when itacquired Digital’sstorage business in1994. He returned toschool again atCMRR, receiving hisPh.D. degree in1999. He joinedMaxtor Corporationin 2001 as it mergedwith Quantum’s diskdrive business.

Dr. McEwen’sfavorite topic wascoding for the magnetic recordingchannel. This was the subject for hisdissertation, and he continued toshow great interest in this areathroughout his career. His thesisincluded work on construction oftrellis codes and forbidden list codes.Later he complemented these con-structions with higher rate codessuch as event error control codes.

CMRR REPORT WINTER•0211

eter A. McEwen, aleading expert in cod-ing and signal pro-cessing for data stor-

age, died Nov. 25, 2001 inSunnyvale, California. He was 37.

Dr. McEwen was manager ofthe Advanced Recording ChannelArchitecture Group at MaxtorCorporation in Milpitas,California. His group was respon-sible for evaluating coding, detec-tion, error correction, and servoalgorithms and selecting the onesto be used in read channels fornext-generation products. He hadthe valuable capacity to integrateall the various signal processingdetails into an elegant read chan-nel architecture whose perform-ance was excellent but whoseimplementation was simple.

Dr. McEwen 's interests werediverse. He contributed toresearch in the areas of detectiontheory, modulation codes, syn-chronization, equalization, mitiga-tion of thermal asperities, and inmatching read channel architec-tures to specific head and mediatechnologies. Dr. McEwen waseducated in electrical engineer-ing, receiving his S.B. degreefrom the Massachusetts Instituteof Technology in 1986. He wentto work for Digital EquipmentCorporation in 1986, returning toschool and receiving an M.S.degree from Carnegie Mellon

Obituary for Peter A. McEwen

P

A congenial colleague, Dr.McEwen collaborated withdozens of coauthors on researchpapers, meticulously ensuringthey all received proper credit fortheir contributions. He wasalways willing to spend timeexplaining codes and channelarchitecture to coworkers.

Dr. McEwen’s success wasachieved despite being afflictedwith scleroderma, a rare, chronicautoimmune (arthritis) diseasewhich impaired his ability to doeveryday activities such as writ-ing and typing.

— Thomas Howell— Pablo Ziperovich— Ara Patapoutian

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