Increasing the Information Density of Storage Systems Using the Precision-Resolution Paradigm

摘要

Arguably, the most prominent constrained system in storage applications is the (d, k)-RLL (Run-Length Limited) system, where every binary sequence obeys the constraint that every two adjacent 1's are separated by at least d consecutive 0's and at most k consecutive 0's, namely, runs of 0's are length limited. The motivation for the RLL constraint arises mainly from the physical limitations of the read and write technologies in magnetic and optical storage systems. We revisit the rationale for the RLL system and reevaluate its relationship to the physical media. As a result, we introduce a new paradigm that better matches the physical constraints. We call the new paradigm the Precision-Resolution (PR) system, where the write operation is limited by precision and the read operation is limited by resolution. We compute the capacity of a general PR system and demonstrate that it provides a significant increase in the information density compared to the traditional RLL system (for identical physical limitations). For example, the capacity of the (2, 10)-RLL used in CD-ROMs and DVDs is approximately 0.5418, while our PR system provides the capacity of about 0.7725, resulting in a potential increase of about 40% in information density.