Robust metric computation of longitudinal position (lpos) data symbol detection

A computer program product, comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code readable/executable by a processing circuit, to:

• compute, by the processing circuit, a correlation signal between a sequence of samples of a readback servo signal and a reference waveform:
• provide, by the processing circuit, a reference timing model comprising one or more interpolation instants, wherein the correlation signal determined at each interpolation instant yields a detection metric for one data symbol;
• and
• interpolate, by the processing circuit, the correlation signal at the interpolation instants and compute a longitudinal position (LPOS) detection metric according to the interpolated correlation signal samples.

A method, comprising:

• computing a correlation signal between a sequence of samples of a readback servo signal and a reference waveform;
• providing a reference timing model comprising one or more interpolation instants, wherein the correlation signal determined at each interpolation instant yields a detection metric for one data symbol;
• and
• interpolating the correlation signal at the interpolation instants and computing a longitudinal position (LPOS) detection metric according to the interpolated correlation signal samples.