Magnetic recording systems
Roger W. Wood · Proceedings of the IEEE · 1986
This review of magnetic recording systems concentrates on developments in two particular areas: the video-tape recorder and the rigid disk drive. The consumer VCR represents the state of the art for analog in-contact recording, while the rigid disk drive exemplifies digital recording with rapid access. Various aspects of the mechanical configurations, track-following techniques, heads and media, and signal processing are discussed. More briefly the paper describes other digital systems on flexible media.