CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 20031

epoportRNumber 21 SUMMER • 2003

1 CMRR Celebrates Twenty Years

2 CMRR Establishes “Schultz Prize”

3 From the Director

Research Reviews

4 Distinguished AlumniAwards

5 Shannon Memorial Lecture

6 Research Highlights

“Secure Erasure” Project

7 Lake ArrowheadConference

8 CMRR Information Center Resources

9 CMRR Welcomes New Affiliated Faculty

10 Grants and Gifts

11 Talke Receives Seagate Award

Ph.D.’s Awarded

12 CMRR Welcomes New Researchers

13 Marcia Levitt Recognized for Service

CMRR Graduatng Students

16 Newsletter Contributors

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

CONTENTS

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his year, the Center forMagnetic RecordingResearch (CMRR) is celebrating the 20th

anniversary of its founding as anOrganizedResearch Unitat UC SanDiego. In con-junction withthe SpringResearchReview (May7-8), severalspecial eventsrecognized thismilestone inthe Center’shistory.

On Monday,May 5, thefirst ShannonMemorialLecture waspresented inthe CMRRAuditorium by Prof. Toby Berger,

On Tuesday, May 6, there was aspecial birthday celebration honoringthe many individuals who have con-tributed to the Center’s 20 years of

success. All CMRR students - pastand present - were invited, alongwith visiting researchers, represen-tatives of our industry and govern-ment sponsors, and, of course,

Center admin-istrative staff,technical staff,and faculty.

The festivi-ties began at5:00 p.m. witha reception inthe CMRRlobby. Beneatha banner dis-playing theCMRR logoand proclaim-ing the anniver-sary, the 140guests – includ-ing 30 CMRRalumni –enjoyed hors-d’oeuvres and

conversation while being enter-tained with the delightful music ofthe Samba Jazz trio, led by formerCMRR Research Scientist Dr.Lineu Barbosa.

T

CMRR Celebrates Twenty Years

GUESTS CELEBRATE CMRR’S 20TH ANNIVERSARY AT THE MAY 6 RECEPTION HELD AT CMRR.

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 20032

he year 2003 marks the20th anniversary of thefounding of the Centerfor Magnetic Recording

Research, a truly landmark event inthe history of industry-universitypartnerships at UC San Diego. Inrecognition and celebration of thisevent, CMRR has established theSheldon Schultz Prize for Excellencein Graduate Student Research. ThePrize is named in honor of formerCMRR Director, Sheldon Schultz,who skillfully guided the Centerfrom November 1990 throughAugust 2000.

The Schultz Prize is intended toannually recognize CMRR graduatestudents who have distinguishedthemselves through the creativity oftheir research and the impact oftheir publications. The selection ofthe recipient will be based upon therecommendation of a committeeconsisting of CMRR faculty mem-bers, with input from selectedexperts in information storage tech-nology.

The first Schultz Prize was award-ed jointly to Geoffrey Beach, a mem-

ber of Prof. AmiBerkowitz’sMagnetic Materialsand Devices group,and Kai-Zhong Gao,who recentlyreceived his Ph.D.degree from Prof.Neal Bertram’sMagnetic RecordingPhysics andMicromagneticsgroup. The awardswere presented atthe 20th AnniversaryCelebration dinner,May 6, 2003.

Geoffrey Beach iscompleting hisPh.D. dissertationon “Magnetic Properties of CoXFe100-X Metal/Native OxideMultilayers.” In his research, Geoffhas pioneered a new, and very suc-cessful, approach to developing multilayer thin films suitable for usein the design of recording heads anddisks capable of operating atextremely high data transfer ratesand storage densities.

In addition to their potential tech-nological value, these materials repre-sent an entirely new type of magneticmaterial, making their analysis a sub-ject of basic scientific importance. Tocharacterize these multilayer films,Geoff has very creatively utilized awide range of measurement tech-niques. In collaboration with Ami andProf. Sunil Sinha, he recently con-ducted the first experiments onAsterix, a unique new apparatus forneutron diffraction and reflection atLANSCE - the Los Alamos NeutronScience Center. These experimentswere highlighted by the Los AlamosNational Laboratory on their website

TCMRR establishes “Schultz Prize”

(and also in the Fall 2002 issue ofCMRR Report).

The nomination and endorsementof Geoff for this award noted thatGeoff has established an impressivenumber of fruitful collaborations withscientists in academia, governmentresearch labs, and industry, and citedhis creativity, initiative, dedication,and enthusiasm for research.

Kai-Zhong Gao recently completedthe defense of his doctoral disserta-tion, entitled “Optimization of WriteHeads and Media for Ultra HighDensity and Data Rate MagneticRecording”, and recently joinedSeagate Technology in Bloomington,Minnesota.

In his research, Kai-Zhong usedmicromagnetic analysis to investigatenovel configurations of recordingheads and magnetic media thataddress the grand challenge ofachieving storage densities of onetrillion bits of information in onesquare-inch of disk area. His creativeapproach to the problem resulted in

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 20033

n this issue of the CMRRReport, you will find sev-eral articles (and photos)relating to the Center’s

20th anniversary celebration, whichwas combined with our recentSpring Research Review. The well-attended events highlighted thestrength of the ties that bind togeth-er the diverse members of CMRR’s“extended family,” as well as thebreadth and depth of the contribu-tions that the members of this familyhave made to modern data storagetechnology over the past twodecades.

CMRR’s success has its roots inthe commitment of the universityand its sponsors in government andindustry to supporting an interdisci-plinary research center addressingthe vital area of information storage.Considering the benefits that havearisen from this commitment in thepast, and the exciting prospects forinformation storage research in thefuture, I trust that in another twentyyears, there will be cause for a cele-bration even bigger and better thatthe one we’ve just enjoyed.

— Paul H. Siegel, Director

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

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KAI-ZHONG GAO (SECOND FROM LEFT) AND GEOFF BEACH (FAR RIGHT) SHARE THE FIRST SHELDON SCHULTZ PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN GRADUATE STUDENTRESEARCH. THE HONOREES ARE JOINED BY (LEFT TO RIGHT) PROFS. SHELLY SCHULTZ,NEAL BERTRAM, GAO’S ADVISOR AND AMI BERKOWITZ, BEACH’S ADVISOR

Since the publication of the Fall 2002CMRR Report, the Center has held twosemi-annual Research Reviews.

Fall 2002 Research Review Summary CMRR hosted 45 persons from the CMRR Industrial Sponsor companies and other invited guests at the semi-annu-

al Research Review and Advisory Council meeting on November 20-21, 2002. The program followed the usual formatof two days of talks highlighting the work of the CMRR faculty, researchers and graduate students as well as CMRRaffiliated faculty members. Dr. Giora Tarnopolsky, President, TarnoTek, gave the Special Session presentation entitled“Areal Density Growth: Is It the Manifest Destiny of the Hard Disk Drive?” Tours of the CMRR labs and private discus-sions with students and researchers began at 4:30 p.m. The evening’s activities culminated with dinner at CMRR andthe Advisory Council meeting at 7:30 p.m.

The meetings officially adjourned at 4:30 p.m., November 21, however several guests stayed for additional labtours and private discussions.

Spring 2003 Research Review SummaryNine member organizations of the CMRR Industrial Sponsor companies, and other invited guests, were represent-

ed at the CMRR Spring Research Review, 20th Anniversary Celebration, and Advisory Council Meeting May 7 and 8.The Special Session entitled “CMRR –The First 20 Years and Beyond” featured talks by UCSD faculty and members ofthe data storage industry who were instrumental in the founding and development of the Center (see related article, CMRR Celebrates Twenty Years on page 1).

CMRR Sponsor company employees may access the abstracts and graphs of the Research Review presentations onthe CMRR website in the Sponsor Resources section.

The Fall 2003 Research Review is scheduled for November 12-13, 2003. If you have not received invitations to previous Research Reviews, please contact Cheryl Hacker (chacker@ucsd.edu or 858-534-6563) to have your nameadded to the invitation list.

CMRR Research Reviews

A graduate of Frank Talke’s group,Christopher Lacey received his Ph.D.in 1992, with a dissertation entitled“The Head/Tape Interface.” Duringhis Ph.D. studies, Chris developednovel experimental methods andnumerical simulations to study theinterface between the recording headand the magnetic medium in tapestorage devices. As a summer intern,he collaborated with Phase Metricson the extension of these techniquesto the setting of magnetic diskrecording.

After graduation, Christopherfounded Micro Physics, a company

that specializes in instru-mentation for the data stor-age industry. The company’swidely used products includerecording head testers, head-medium space analyzers, andnumerical simulation toolsfor flying-height analysis.

The endorsing statementsfor this award cited Chris’s“striking” research in mechanics,including his innovative experimen-tal techniques. In fact, a search ofthe US Patent and TrademarkOffice database uncovered 12patents with Chris Lacey as inventor

or co-inventor. Kelly KnudsonFitzpatrick receivedher Ph.D. in 1994from Jack Wolf ’sgroup, known at thetime as “Codes RUs.”

As part of herPh.D. thesis, whichwas entitled“Detection andError-Correction forPartial ResponseChannels,” Kellycame up with theidea of using a sim-plified algorithm forreliable detection ofdata from magneticrecording channels

using various error-control codes andequalization techniques. The essenceof the idea is to ignore the code inthe detector and then check whetheror not the detector produces a codeword from the code. If it does, thedetection process is complete. If itdoes not, the detector is told that ithas made a mistake and a correctionprocess takes place to find the cor-rect code word.

When Kelly joined Quantum (now Maxtor) she extended this“post-processing” idea to so-calledhigher-order partial response equal-ization. She was granted what provedto be a very important patent on thisinvention, entitled “ReducedComplexity EPR4 Post-Processor forSampled Data Detection.” Thisinvention became the basis of theread-write channel technology incor-porated into Quantum’s product line,and it ultimately earned Kelly thevery prestigious “Quantum Inventorof the Year Award”.

n connection with the Center’s 20th AnniversaryCelebration, the CMRR Distinguished AlumnniAward was established to recognize outstandinggraduates who have had notable impact upon the

science, engineering, and business of information storagetechnology. On May 6, 2003, at the Anniversary Banquet, thefirst Distinguished Alumni Awards were presented toChristopher Lacey and Kelly Knudson Fitzpatrick.

On Monday, May 5, UCSan Diego inaugurateda new series of annuallectures named forClaude E. Shannon,

the father of information theory. Theseries was established through theendowment of a lectureship to com-memorate Shannon’s achievementsand to recognize their vast impactupon modern society. A bust ofShannon, situated in the CMRRlobby, bears a plaque with the follow-ing inscription:

Claude Elwood Shannon (1916-2001)

Father of Information TheoryHis formulation of the mathematical

theory of communication provided thefoundation for the development ofdata storage and transmission systemsthat launched the information age

Each year an outstanding informa-tion theorist will be selected to pres-ent the Shannon Memorial Lecture,on or about Shannon’s birthday (April30). The series will be hosted atCMRR by Prof. Jack K. Wolf, JacobsSchool electrical and computer engi-neering professor and CMRRendowed chair. (Prof. Wolf receivedthe 2001 Claude E. Shannon Awardfrom the IEEE Information TheorySociety.)

The inaugural lecture, entitled“Information Theory in Real Neural

Nets,” was presented by Toby Berger,Irwin and Joan Jacobs Professor ofEngineering, Electrical and ComputerEngineering, at Cornell University.Prof. Berger was the 2002 Claude E.Shannon Award recipient, and is rec-ognized as a pioneer in the applica-tion of information-theoretic conceptsto living systems. The ShannonMemorial Lecture was webcast livevia the Cal-(IT)2 website atwww.calit2.net, where an archivedvideo of the lecture can be viewed on-demand.

Support for the webcast, reception,and a dinner in honor of Prof. Bergerwas kindly provided by the San DiegoDivision of Cal-(IT)2.

Distinguished Alumni Awards

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 20034

First Annual Shannon Memorial Lecture

I

CHRIS LACEY (RIGHT), CMRR DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS, RECEIVES CON-GRATULATIONS FROM HIS FORMER ADVISOR, PROFESSOR FRANK TALKE.

KELLY KNUDSON FITZPATRICK IS CONGRATULATED ON RECEIVING THE CMRR DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD BY DIRECTOR PAUL SIEGEL (LEFT) AND FORMERADVISOR, PROFESSOR JACK WOLF.

Neural signaling in the humanbrain can be modeled as a time-dis-crete binary random field. Thenodes of this field’s graph are thebrain’s neurons, believed to num-ber circa 1011. The field’s time stepduration is 2.5 ms, which is theGabor time width of a typical neu-ral spike. Field random variable Bi,k

equals 1 if neuron i sends a spikedown its axon during time slot kand equals 0 otherwise.

A typical neuron in the brain hassome 10,000 immediate neighborsfrom which it receives spike trainsand another roughly 10,000 neigh-bors to whom it delivers its ownspike train. Despite these high in-degrees and out-degrees, the con-nectivity matrix is extremely sparse,since the connection density is onlycirca 104/1011=10-7. Each neural

spike visits each of its 104 destina-tions within the same time slot, sothe brain delivers some 1015 binarydigits (to their destinations) severalhundred times per second.Although the Internet perhaps alsomoves several hundred petabitsduring one second, it has manyrelay nodes and therefore maydeliver less information per secondto its destination than does a singlebrain. Certainly, the Internet doesnot compute and transmit to allintended destinations a new petabit2.5 ms later that depends intimatelyon the values assumed by the previ-ous one. Since the computingpower and especially the communi-cating power of an individual neu-ron are relatively weak comparedto those of modern electronic com-puter logic elements, we reach the

inescapable conclusion that thebrain’s celebrated computingprowess must stem in considerablemeasure from its topological con-nectivity.

We discuss how to model neuralregions responsible for sensory per-ception as time-discrete, finite-memory channels with feedback.The input and output spaces ofthese regions are binary vectorsthat possess millions of compo-nents. The channel’s latest outputvector, which serves also as thechannel state, gets fed back to thechannel input. We show that ener-gy efficient information transmis-sion across such neural regions nec-essarily results in an output processthat is first-order Markovian,though not necessarily homoge-

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ABSTRACT

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 20035

Intelligent storage system (“iStor”)features are enabled by changes ininternal drive technology and in com-puter data access methodology. Wesee extensions of object-based storagedevices (OSD in the SCSI architecture)as a basis for storage systems and userapplication programs to interface toiStor features. Current abstractionssuch as storage virtualization missiStor opportunities because they usedrives simply as block data storagedevices. OSD allows abstraction ofstorage away from physical devicemanagement, for virtualization andfor real-time quality-of-service man-agement. This can allow tight controlof physical storage performance bydata intensive user applications suchas database programs.

A computer system has been con-figured to experimentally test the diskdrive secure erase “SE” intelligent fea-ture that CMRR put into the standarddrive computer interface specs, SCSIand ATA. We are developing a CMRRSE test protocol to verify that SEdeletes all user data from test drives,beyond the possibility of recovery.

A third iStor project has begun tostudy storage system performanceimprovements by using the “time-to-data” feature from the Spectrum arti-cle. A computer simulation will deter-mine data access speedups made pos-sible by letting storage systems querydrives to find the quickest order toaccess records in a multi-task userrequest queue. An experimental proj-ect is in progress to study time-to-data by using existing SCSI commandswhich return the head and disk physi-cal positions at any time.

CMRR is also participating in aStorage Networking IndustryAssociation (snia.org) initiative toform a storage network users interestgroup at ISIC.

MRR’s project on intelli-gent disk drive storagesystems (“iStor”) is spon-sored by the SloanFoundation Information

Storage Industry Center at UCSD. Our initial project study was CMRRSMART, which developed disk drivefailure warning methods allowing four times higher warning accuracythan current disk drive technology, atlow false alarm rates (see “Improveddisk drive failure warnings” IEEETrans. Reliability, vol. 51, p 350-7, September 2002)

A paper on SMART by ECE graduatestudent researcher Joe Murray hasbeen accepted for presentation at the2003 International Conference onArtificial Neural Networks. It com-pares past CMRR SMART warningmethods to pattern recognition sup-port vector methods, to unsupervisedclustering, and to reverse arrange-ments statistical rank tests. The lattertest looks for upward trends in driveinternal error counts, by tracking thenumber of times a new error count ishigher than previous counts.

Intelligent storage features offerbenefits in storage system perform-ance and to user application pro-grams. A recent IEEE Spectrum articleby Dr. Gordon Hughes’ (“Wise Drives,”August 2002) points out that work onintelligent storage dates from the1980’s (such as the Teradata data pro-cessing computer and Active Disks),pushing data-centric computingdownward in computer architecture,but rarely penetrating through thecomputer-disk drive interface. CMRRcurrently has three active projectsbased on the potential iStor featureslisted in this IEEE Spectrum article.

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 20037

CMRR’s storage systems projecton “secure erasure” of disk drivedata has just been renewed by theNational Security Agency, withGordon Hughes as PrincipalInvestigator. This three-year$150,000 project answers a signifi-cant data storage user need to reli-ably eradicate data from computerhard drives for security and privacyreasons. The need for “secure era-sure” arises when:

• A user releases disks or they areremoved from systems for mainte-nance.

• Storage devices are re-config-ured for other uses or users, forinstance in expiring leased data stor-age facilities at a storage serviceprovider or data center.

• A project is completed and thedata must be purged to protect

“need to know” or to prepare drivesfor new users or applications.

• A virus has been detected andall possible traces of the offendingcode must be eliminated.

The “secure erase” (SE) com-mand is now part of the standarddisk drive specifications (IDE/ATAand SCSI) at CMRR’s request. It isa positive, easy-to-use data destroycommand, amounting to “electronicdata shredding.” It completely eras-es all possible user data areas byoverwriting. SE is a simple additionto the existing “format drive” com-mand currently present in computeroperating systems and storage sys-tems, and consequently adds littleor no cost to drives.

Secure erase is required by theATA specification, although it is optional in SCSI. The new “serial

ATA” drives will be able to advertiseSE as a user feature in their compe-tition with SCSI and fiber channeldrives for market share in low-endstorage systems.

The new secure erase project istesting a CMRR protocol for evalu-ating the SE feature in individualdrive models to insure that eraseddata is not recoverable.

Secure erasure capability will berequired by the U.S. government fortheir disk drive purchases.Considering the security feature thiscapability offers to many users weexpect there will be considerablecommercial interest in this capabili-ty as well.

For additional information on thesecure erasure initiative, contactGordon Hughes<gfhughes@ucsd.edu>.

“Secure Erasure” Project

C

Research Highlights

he 22nd annual CMRRInteractive Workshopon Information Storagewas held December 8 to

11, 2002 at the UCLA ConferenceCenter at Lake Arrowhead. TheWorkshop motto for 22 years hasbeen “Let no foil go unchal-lenged.” This year, 23 technologistsdebated “Heads, media andmechanics to reach terabit densityin hard disk drives.”

In the opening tutorial session onNano Storage, Stephen Chou,Princeton University, discussednanoimprinting lithography for 10nm bits, and Stuart Solin,

Washington University, proposedexotic semiconductor-based spin-tronic read sensors. Over three days,terabit per square inch areal densitytechnology challenges in magneticrecording heads, read/write chan-nels, disc magnetics, and drivemechanics were discussed. Themechanics session was moderatedby CMRR Professor Frank Talke. Asession on non-magnetic alternativetechnologies covered the possibilitythat recording physics limits mightsoon be reached.

- Gordon Hughes,Workshop Chair

Lake Arrowhead Conference

T

WORKSHOP AGENDA:

Sunday - December 8

Tutorial: Nano Storage

Speakers: Stephen Chou, Princeton University and Stuart Solin, Washington University

Monday - December 9

Session I: Read sensors and channels

Moderator: Dave Thompson, IBM retiree

Session II: Recording media

Moderator: Dave Wachenschwanz, Komag

Tuesday - December 10

Session III: Mechanics

Moderator: Frank Talke, CMRR

Session IV: Patterned media and non-magnetic recording alternatives

Moderator: Bruce Terris, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Wednesday - December 11

Session V: Overflow and TMRC Review

Moderator: John Best, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 20036

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 20038

Sunil Sinha is the LANSCE Professor in the Physics Department at UCSD, a jointappointment with UCSD and Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has workedas a Senior Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he was Headof the X-Ray Scattering Group and, prior to coming to UCSD, at ArgonneNational Laboratory where he was Associate Director of the ExperimentalFacilities Division of the Advanced Photon Synchrotron Source. He was also aSenior Research Associate at Exxon’s Corporate Research Laboratories inAnnandale, N.J. His interests lie in the use of X-Ray and Neutron Scattering tostudy the structure and dynamics of materials.

Prof. Sinha is collaborating with Prof. Ami Berkowitz’s group to study themagnetostriction and magnetic structure in magnetic nanoparticles. They planto investigate by X-Ray diffraction at the Advanced Photon Source the “giant magnetostric-tion” effect in nanoparticles of Terfenol. In addition, numerical simulations have indicatedthe existence of multisublattice antiferromagnetic structures in NiO nanoparticles, asopposed to the conventional bulk 2-sublattice antiferromagnetic structure. Prof. Sinha andProf. Berkowitz’s groups will use neutron diffraction at the Los Alamos neutron scatteringfacility to look for these novel structures.

Prof. Sinha’s awards and honors include the Ernest O. Lawrence Medal of USDOE (1996)and the Arthur H. Compton Award (2000).

CMRR WELCOMES NEW AFFILIATED FACULTY

Dr. Sungho Jin received his Ph.D. degree in materials science and engineer-ing from the University of California, Berkeley in 1974. After two years ofresearch at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, he joined Bell Laboratories atMurray Hill, New Jersey in 1976. He carried out research at Bell Labs for 26years, first as a Member of Technical Staff, and later on as TechnicalManager of the Applied Materials and Metallurgy Research Group. Hejoined University of California, San Diego in July, 2002 as a Professor ofMaterials Science and Endowed Chair, and is currently serving as Director ofUCSD’s Materials Science & Engineering Program where he is activelyengaged in improving and expanding both materials education and materi-als research. As a part of such initiatives, five new courses dealing with elec-

tronic/magnetic/photonic materials, nanomaterials, biomaterials, MEMS, andinventions/patents have been added to the curriculum.

Dr. Jin’s research activities for the past two decades include many aspects of magnetismand magnetic materials such as permanent magnets, semi-hard magnets, soft magnets,magnetic sensors, magnetic switching, CMR phenomenon and materials, magnetically tun-able devices, and flux pinning of superconductors. His research interests/programs at UCSDrelated to magnetics include the design and study of new magnetic materials and devices,in particular, ultra-high-density magnetic recording media, transport and spin-relatedbehavior of thin film magnetic materials, magnetic tuning of telecom-related devices, andstudy of biomagnetism. The activities of his research group with six graduate students, twopostdoctoral fellows and a research scientist also include R&D of nanomaterials, biomateri-als and MEMS.

CMRR Information Center offersresources on storage technology

Many of you may not beaware that CMRR has anInformation Center/

Library. Formed in October 1984, itprovides a centralized location forinformation resources on storagetechnology. The collection includesbooks, journals, theses, technicalreports, standards and specifica-tions, and databases. While the collection is open to any researcherfor in-house consultation, more spe-cialized services are only available tomembers of the sponsoring compa-nies of CMRR. These services include:

• Photocopies of journal articles

• Loan of books

• Loan or purchase of videotapesof the CMRR weekly seminarseries and the monthly lectureseries sponsored by the IEEEMagnetics Society.

• Copies of theses, from CMRRas well as from other institu-tions

• Copies of patents

• Copies of industry standards

• Searches of commercial data-bases such as INSPEC,Chemical Abstracts,Compendex, World PatentsIndex, etc. These searches canbe done as a one-time retro-spective search covering anyperiod of time from approxi-mately 1970 to date. A searchprofile can also be establishedto track an area of interest andresults will be emailed on amonthly basis.

Requests can be madevia telephone, fax,email, or via our Website athttp://cmrr.ucsd.edu/icenter/. Please notethat while the search-able database of allCMRR seminars,Research Review pre-sentations, and stu-dent theses is publiclyaccessible from ourWeb site, a more full-featured search includ-ing full abstracts andlinks to PowerPointpresentations andwhere available a linkto a streaming videofile is only available tomembers of CMRR sponsoringcompanies. An on-lineordering function isalso available to mem-bers of CMRR sponsor-ing companies via thepassword-protected Web page. Youcan register to receive the passwordat the site.

The holdings of the CMRR col-lection are listed in the UCSDLibraries on-line catalog ROGER,publicly accessible athttp://roger.ucsd.edu/ After search-ing by any of the available indexes –author, title, keyword, subject, orcall number, you can restrict yourresults with the “Limit this Search”function found at the bottom of thescreen and then indicating “cmrr” inthe “Where Item is located” searchbox, again located near the bottomof the screen.

The Information Center is openMonday to Friday: 8:30 a.m. - 4:30p.m. and closed Saturday andSunday. Given our small staff wesuggest a call to confirm that staffare available to assist you, shouldyou be planning to visit in person.

Staff: Dawn Talbot, 858 534 6213Jan Neumann, 858 534 6199Fax: 858 534 2720Email: cmrrill@ucsd.edu

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 20039

Prof. Ami Berkowitz has received anaward from the Raytheon Companyentitled “Magnetic Meta-Materialsfor RF and Power Electronics.” Theproject covers the development ofFeCo/insulator meta-materials usingthe spark erosion process. A designof experiments will then be per-formed to identify the most promis-ing FeCo/insulator material.Additional work may then be per-formed to optimize the materialcharacteristics. These powders will beused in the preparation of magneticpastes. The targeted operating fre-quency range for these materials is30 MHz to 100 MHz.

Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory has awarded a supple-ment to Prof. Ami Berkowitz’s MultiUniversity Research Initiative“Terfenol and Ni Particles Producedby Spark Erosion.” The current proj-ect is a collaboration with UCLA andLLNL in an investigation of the mag-netostrictive properties of compos-ites in which Terfenol particles pre-pared by the spark erosion methodare disposed in a polymer matrix.The supplement, which extends theproject through September 2003,allows the investigation of the opti-mization of magnetostrictive proper-ties of the composites by determin-ing the influence of size, shape, crys-tallinity, texture, alignment, and vol-ume fraction on these properties. Itis important for this study to know ifthe magnetostrictive properties ofthe particles are the same as those ofthe bulk material, and, if they arenot the same, how they differ.

Dr. Fred Spada, CMRR AssociateResearch Scientist, will be participat-ing in the recently announced Multi-Terabyte Tape System, a NIST/ATPProgram managed by Imation andPeregrine Recording Technology.Dr. Spada’s research will focus onelectrochemical issues that can influ-

ence magnetic spacing via interac-tions among the sputtered metaltape layer, protective overcoat, lubri-cants, and the critical reading andwriting elements in the recordinghead. The goal of these studies willbe to identify the important interac-tions and exploit this knowledge toreduce pole tip recession, assist inthe selection of potential lubricants,and identify any incompatibilitiesthat may affect long-term systemreliability.

The Information Storage IndustryConsortium (INSIC) has recentlyfunded four new CMRR projectsunder the Extremely High DensityRecording (EHDR) Program.

Prof. Neal Bertram will direct a projecton “Intercoupled Experimental andTheoretical Studies of PerpendicularRecording.” The research involvesthe development of an efficienttechnique to determine the recordedtransition parameter and cross tracktransition correlation length. Boththese parameters are critical in thetypically jitter dominated SNR.Knowledge of each one can givedirection to media development, inparticular the roles of distributionsand intergranular interactions. Aprevious method utilized the transi-tion noise spectrum, but for perpen-dicular media a time analysis of thenoise is utilized. One thousand tran-sitions in a medium density squarewave pattern are sampled withabout 400 sample points per transi-tion. The correlation function, afterDC noise removal, is analyzed interms of eigenmodes. The first twodominant modes give the transitioncharacteristics independent of thegeometry, such as medium spacing.

Profs. Paul Siegel, Jack Wolf, and NealBertram will collaborate on thedevelopment of an “Improved DataStream Simulator for Perpendicular

Recording.” The simulator, basedupon a microtrack model of therecording process, should accuratelyrepresent the signal and noise char-acteristics expected in a perpendicu-lar recording system operating athigh areal density (> 300 Gb/in2 ).Results of micromagnetic modelingwill provide guidance for incorpora-tion of various recording effects,such as nonlinear transition shift,cross-track pulse shape variations,track curvature, DC noise, and partialerasure. Spinstand measurementswill be used to validate the model.The simulator output is intended toserve as the input to a “softwarechannel” and will be made availableto participants in the EHDR SignalProcessing team, permitting per-formance comparisons of variouscoding, equalization, and detectiontechniques.

Prof. Paul Siegel has also receivedfunding for a project on “ErrorControl Coding for Terabit perSquare Inch Recording.” Theresearch effort will examine algo-rithms and architectures for iterativesoft-decision decoding of Reed-Solomon codes on partial responsechannels. In particular, new methodsfor generating soft outputs fromsoft-decision Reed-Solomon decoderswill be evaluated. Applications tohigh-rate parity-sharing code archi-tectures will also be addressed.

Finally, Prof. Frank Talke will investi-gate “The Optimization of TexturedSliders.”

CMRR’s storage systems project on“Secure Erasure” of disk drive datahas just been renewed by theNational Security Agency, with Dr.Gordon Hughes as PrincipalInvestigator. This three-year projectaddresses a significant need of manydata storage users, namely, the needto reliably eradicate data from com-puter hard drives for security andprivacy reasons. (For more details,see the related article in theResearch Highlights section on page 6.)

Recent Gifts, Grants, Awards, and Internships

Kai-Zhong Gao, a member of Prof. NealBertram’s Magnetic Recording Physics andMicromagnetics group since 1997, received hisPh. D. in Physics in November 2002. His thesis,“Optimization of Write Heads and Media forUltra High Density and Data Rate MagneticRecording,” focused on perpendicular recording systems.Kai-Zhong’s research interests are primarily inmagnetic recording physics, especially focusedon perpendicular recording systems, including:

1) large scale three dimensional micromagnetic simulations in bothmagnetic recording head and media, 2) perpendicular recording headdesign and optimization, 3) tilted and conventional perpendicularrecording analysis, and 4) dynamic gyro-magnetic switching time andswitching field limits study.A recent paper, co-authored by Prof. Bertram and Dr. Gao published inInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Transaction onMagnetics, proposed and analyzed a tilted perpendicular system andcompared it to conventional perpendicular recording. This new record-ing scheme is believed to be an alternative approach for ultra highdensity magnetic recording with areal density beyond 1 Tbit/in2.Currently Kai-Zhong is a Senior Development Engineer at Seagate,Bloomington, working on a variety of issues, including perpendicularrecording analysis.

Henry Pfister joined Professor Paul Siegel’sresearch group in 1998 and was awarded hisPh.D. in Electrical Engineering in March 2003.His research focused on information theory anderror-correcting codes, and resulted in the dis-sertation entitled, “On the Capacity of FiniteState Channels and the Analysis of Convo-lutional Accumulate-m Codes”. The applicationsof this research include new techniques in thesignal processing area of magnetic storage.After completing his Ph.D., he spent the month

of April wandering around Australia and New Zealand. In May, hestarted work in Corporate Research and Development at Qualcomm,Inc. in San Diego.

Ph.D.’s Awarded

Professor Frank E. Talkeof CMRR and Professor David B.Bogy, UC Berkeley, were recent-ly awarded the Annual SeagateInformation Technology Award.This award, jointly sponsored bythe Tribology Division of theAmerican Society of MechanicalEngineers (ASME) and SeagateTechnology, LLC was beingawarded for the first time. Inannoucing the award inOctober 2002, Harvey P. NixonASME Chair, Tribology Divisionand Mark Kryder, Senior VicePresident and Director ofResearch for Seagate cited thesubstantial, life long contribu-tions Talke and Bogy have madeto the advancement of tribolo-gy of magnetic storage devices.

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 200310 CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 200311

Talke ReceivesSeagateInformationTechnologyAward

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 200313CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 200312

arcia Levitt celebrated15 years of service atthe University ofCalifornia, San Diegoin November 2002.

Marcia began working at UCSD’sCounty Medical Health Services atthe UCSD Medical Center inNovember 1987 before transferringto the Center for MolecularResearch on the La Jolla campus.

In September1994, Marciajoined CMRR asassistant to Profs.Ami Berkowitzand Frank Talke,and very quicklybecame a keymember of theCMRR family.

Marcia Levitt Recognized for 15 Years of Service at UCSD

MPROFESSORS AMI BERKOWITZ (LEFT) AND FRANK TALKE CONGRATULATE MARCIA LEVITT FOR 15 YEARS OF SERVICE AT UCSD.

Jan Jose joined Prof. Frank Talke’s group in September 2002 for a one-year exchangeprogram under the Max Planck Research Awards for International Cooperation. Duringthe previous four years, Jan studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Rostockwith special emphasis on applied microelectronics. Following his visiting appointment atCMRR, Jan will return to the University of Rostock to write his diploma thesis. Jan hasthree primary objectives during his stay in the United States: 1) to write another thesis,which is needed to finish his studies in Germany, 2) to get to know the American way oflife, and 3) to improve his English.

Maik Duwensee is not really new to CMRR. He was a visiting graduate student in Prof.Frank Talke’s group during the academic year 1999/2000. After his year at UCSD hereturned to Germany to finish his Diploma Degree at the University of Rostock. Hegraduated in June 2001. His final thesis dealt with “Active Sway Motion Damping for anUnderconstrained Cable Manipulator”. Following graduation, Maik became a ResearchAssistant at the Institute for Drive Mechanics and Mechatronics at Rostock Universityfor one year. He worked on a simulation program dealing with the dynamics of cars withair-spring-dampers. Maik re-joined the Talke group as a Ph.D. student last November.

Besides work Maik enjoys doing any kind of outdoor activities; his favorites includewhitewater kayaking, surfing and snowboarding. He also likes to travel and often combines kayaking andtraveling. He has been kayaking in Wales, Ireland, France, Austria, Czech Republic, Morocco, Germany andCalifornia (and there are still plenty of places to visit). Although far away from home, he remains a memberof the local kayak club Kanuklub Buetzow 1952 e.V., and tries to stay in contact as much as possible.

Dagmar Goll will spend 2003 as a visiting post-doc working with both Profs. NealBertram and Ami Berkowitz. Dr. Goll is sponsored on a fellowship from the DAAD(German Academic Exchange Service), a central agency of the institutions of higher edu-cation in the Federal Republic of Germany which organizes international academicexchange programs. Scholarship recipients are chosen in a national competition by aselection committee made up of prominent German professors in their respective disci-plines. Dr. Goll received her Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research(Stuttgart, Germany) in December 2001, and continued there as a postdoctoral research

assistant for one year working with Prof. G. Schuetz. Her research interests include permanent magnets,ferromagnetic small particles, nanostructures and thin films, micromagnetism (analytical, numerical, finiteelements) and electron microscopy. Besides her research, Dagmar enjoys playing the piano, walking, biking,swimming, reading and gardening.

Ralf Brunner became a research assistant in Prof. Talke’s Group in March 2003, andwants to do research using his background in technical physics. He is a German graduatestudent from the Technical University of Ilmenau. Following his studies, he had intern-ships at several companies and institutions to get experience for his career. He worked atEOS – Electro Optical – Systems in Munich/Germany with laser – sintering machinesand CO2-Lasers. Last year he was working for the Federal Institute for MaterialsResearch and Testing in Berlin/Germany in the Tribology Group of Prof. Santner, wherehe was involved with finishing the project of developing an UHV-Tribometer by testing,re-building and putting it into operation. It was there that he met Prof. Talke who invited Ralf to work withhim in his labs at CMRR. During his one-year stay at CMRR, he will write his diploma thesis to finish hisdegree in Germany. During his free time, Ralf likes to play badminton and the guitar.

CMRR WELCOMES NEW RESEARCHERS

Graduate Students & Researchers Near Completion

STUDENT LEVEL ADVISOR DEPT RESEARCH INTEREST COMPLETION DATE

Geoff Beach Ph.D. Berkowitz Physics Properties and behaviors of nano- June 2003structured materials with applications in magnetic recording

Xiaobin Wang Ph.D. Bertram Physics Thermal reversal of recording media June 2003

Eric Jayson Ph.D. Talke MAE Head/disk interface tribology June 2003

Lin Zhou Vstg Asst Talke CMRR Head/disk interface tribology Summer 2003 Proj Sci

Ramakrishna Akella Ph.D. Wolf ECE Detection Fall 2003

Vladimir Dorfman Ph.D. Wolf ECE Signal processing Summer 2003

Brian Kurkoski Ph.D. Wolf/Siegel ECE Coding December 2003

John Miller Ph.D. Wolf ECE Coding June 2003

two exceptionally innovative ideas: anovel tapered-pole write-head and arecording technique based upon“tilted perpendicular” recordingmedia.

Kai-Zhong’s analysis and simula-tion studies indicate that thesetechniques have the potential toovercome several problems thatpresently impede the attainment ofdensities in excess of 200 billionbits per square inch, and his workhas stimulated great interest in thedata storage industry.

The statements endorsing Kai-Zhong’s nomination for this prizecited his deep understanding ofmagnetic recording, his talent forresearch, and his influential publications that together set astandard for evaluation of novelrecording systems.

Biography of Sheldon Schultz

Sheldon (Shelly) Schultz earnedhis Ph.D. in physics from Columbia

University in 1960, and an M.E.degree from Stevens Institute ofTechnology in 1954. He came toUC San Diego in 1960, (when itwas still called UCLJ!) as part of thefirst group that founded the physicsdepartment, and helped initiate theplanning for what was to becomethe current UCSD campus. Hebecame active with CMRR at itsearliest stages in 1982 serving onthe initial planning, search, andbuilding advisory committees. Heinitiated a research program atCMRR devoted to providing a quan-titative experimental set of data tofully characterize the micromagnet-ics and hysteresis in thin films andsub-micron particles with anemphasis on new experimental tech-niques and advanced instrumenta-tion. His most recent research activ-ities are devoted to Negative Indexof Refraction (also called left-hand-ed) Metamaterials, Photonic BandGap structures, and plasmon reso-nant nanoparticles for bio/medical

diagnostic labels.

How to ContributeCMRR’s goal is to endow the

Prize so that it can be awardedannually and in perpetuity. If youare interested in making a donationof any amount to the Schultz Prize,you will help move us closer to theendowment target of $50,000.Checks should be made payable to“UC San Diego Foundation” with anotation on the check or a briefcover letter designating the contri-bution for the “Schultz Prize.” Yourdonation is 100% tax-deductible,and an official acknowledgement ofyour contribution will be providedto you. All correspondence pertain-ing to the Prize can be directed to:

Prof. Paul H. Siegel, DirectorCMRR, 0401UC San Diego9500 Gilman DriveLa Jolla, CA 92093-0401

The lobby featured several newlyinstalled exhibits highlighting thefounding of the Center, the technicalcontributions of our faculty and stu-dents, and the remarkable technologi-cal achievements of the data storageindustry. Two very interesting displaycases were designedand put together byCMRR librariansDawn Talbot and JanNeumann. One con-tained correspon-dence, memoranda,architectural blue-prints, and photos pertaining to theestablishment and construction ofthe Center. The second paid tributeto the exceptional group of studentresearchers who have earned theirgraduate degrees at CMRR over thepast 20 years. It included the boundPh.D. dissertations of the firstCMRR Ph.D. recipient (CathyFrench, Wolf group) and of the mostrecent (Henry Pfister, Siegel group),as well as a selection of theses fromthe other faculty research groups.The titles and dates of all of the otherCMRR dissertations (on chips color-coded according to CMRR facultyresearch groups) were spreadthroughout the display case. Dawnand Jan also produced a binder ofthesis titles and abstracts that tracedthe fascinating chronology of all grad-uate degrees completed at CMRR.(Copies of the binder were providedto attendees of the event and are stillavailable from the CMRRInformation Center upon request.)

Also on display was a colorful andinformative exhibit, generously donat-ed by CMRR sponsor Hitachi GlobalStorage Technologies, highlightingkey developments in the history ofmagnetic recording technology fromthe fifties to the present. This exhibit,

which comprises three posters, each6-feet tall and 3-feet wide, is nowpermanently mounted in the CMRRlobby.

Following the reception, guestsstrolled through campus to the

UCSD Faculty Club for the 20thAnniversary Awards Program andBanquet. Welcoming remarks weregiven by CMRR Director Paul Siegeland UCSD Vice Chancellor forResearch and Dean of GraduateStudies Richard E. Attiyeh. Prof.Siegel then described the establish-ment of the Sheldon Schultz Prize forExcellence in Graduate StudentResearch, named in honor of formerCMRR Director Shelly

Schultz (Research Professor ofPhysics). Hewent on to intro-duce Prof.Schultz, whogave a briefspeech acceptingthe Prize in hisname. Prof.Siegel thenannounced thefirst SchultzPrize was beingjointly awardedto GeoffreyBeach, a memberof Prof. AmiBerkowitz’sMagneticMaterials andDevices group,

and Kai-Zhong Gao, a member ofProf. Neal Bertram’s MagneticRecording Physics and Micromag-netics group. Each winner was pre-sented with a framed certificate and a$1,000 cash prize. (See Schultz Prize

article on page 2 formore details.)

Following the pres-entation of theSchultz Prize, thenewly establishedDistinguished AlumniAward wasannounced. Theaward is to be pre-

sented on an occasional basis to aCMRR alumnus/a whose contribu-tions to the scientific, engineering, orbusiness of information storage tech-nology have been particularly note-worthy. Again, there were two inaugu-ral recipients of the award -Christopher Lacey (Ph.D. 1992, Prof.Frank Talke - faculty advisor) andKelly Knudson Fitzpatrick (Ph.D.1994, Prof. Jack K. Wolf - facultyadvisor). The recipients were present-ed with framed certificates. (See the

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 200314

related article on page 4 about theseDistinguished Alumni.)

The evening’s festivities concludedwith dinner and entertainment provided by RONDO, a four-piecechamber group led by cellist,Galina Oshay. Finally, on Wednesday, May 7, dur-ing the first day of the SpringResearch Review, there was a SpecialSession celebrating the past andanticipating the future of the Centerand, more generally, of informationstorage technology. The SpecialSession, entitled “CMRR –The First20 Years and Beyond,” was organizedand hosted by CMRR Director PaulSiegel. It featured a program of talksby several distinguished speakers

from UCSD and the data storage industry who provided personal his-torical reflections as well as futurespeculations:

Professor M. Lea Rudee (foundingDean of Engineering at UCSD)“UCSD and CMRR - At theBeginning”

Dr. James U. Lemke (UCSD RevelleMedal recipient, credited with con-ceiving and guiding the establish-ment of CMRR)“CMRR - A Retrospective”

Dr. Denis Mee (IBM FellowEmeritus) “1983-A Pivotal Year in MagneticRecording”

Prof. Shelly Schultz (CMRRDirector, Emeritus)“Data Storage and Societal Future -

Can We Plan Effectively?”

Dr. A. Currie Munce (VP forResearch at Hitachi Global StorageTechnologies)“The Next 20 Years of Digital Storage”

All in all, the celebratory eventsconfirmed the important role thatmembers of the CMRR “family” haveplayed, and continue to play, in theadvancement of information storagetechnology and its applications.

CMRR gratefully acknowledgesQUALCOMM Incorporated, LSILogic, and Cal-(IT)2 for their gener-ous support of the CMRR 20thAnniversary Celebration.

CMRR REPORT SUMMER • 200315

The celebratory events confirmed the important role

that members of the CMRR “family” have played, and

continue to play, in the advancement of information

storage technology and its applications.

CMRR Celebrates Twenty Years continued from page 1

CMRR DIRECTOR EMERITUS SHELLY SCHULTZ (CENTER), WIFE CAROL AND SON DAVIDCELEBRATE CMRR’S 20TH ANNIVERSARY.

“Schultz Prize” continued from page 2

University of California, San DiegoCenter for Magnetic Recording Research, 04019500 Gilman DriveLa Jolla, CA 92093-0401http://cmrr.ucsd.edu

First Class MailU.S. Postage

PAIDSan Diego, CA

Permit No. 1909

Director:Paul H. Siegel

Newsletter Editor:Cheryl Hacker

Contributors:Ami BerkowitzNeal BertramRalf BrunnerMaik DuwenseeKai-zhong GaoCheryl HackerGordon HughesSungho JinHenry PfisterPaul H. SiegelSunil SinhaFred SpadaDawn Talbot

Design & Layout:Sirious Design

epoportCenter for Magnetic Recording Research ReportReportRAgere Systems

Cal-(IT)2

Department of Defense/NSA

Hitachi Global StorageTechnologies

Hitachi, Ltd. (Central ResearchLaboratory)

Hitachi-Maxell, Ltd.

IAP Research, Inc.

IBM Corporation

Imation Corporation

Information Storage IndustryConsortium (INSIC)

Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory (LLNL)

Maxtor Corporation

National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST)

National Science Foundation(NSF)

Quantum Corporation

Raytheon Company

Seagate Technology

Sloan Foundation

Western Digital Corporation

CORPORATE &GOVERNMENT SPONSORSneous. Likewise, the joint (input, out-

put) is first-order Markov, though theinput process is not necessarilyMarkov.

How the brain goes about assuringthat the sensory information thatgets conveyed within and among itsapplication-specific neural regions isthe information that is most perti-nent to the tasks that need to beaddressed is only vaguely understoodat present. We suggest an approachto energy-efficient joint source-chan-nel neural coding of sensory informa-tion based on extensions of conceptsfrom multiterminal information theo-ry coupled with ideas from recursiveestimation theory.

Shannon Memorial Lecture Abstract continued from page 5