Apparatus for compensating for non-linear characteristics of magnetoresistive heads

An apparatus for generating a digital compensated signal derived from an analog signal generated by a magnetoresistive head in a magnetic memory system where said analog signal has a baseline shift and has asymmetry in the form of positive peaks and negative peaks in said analog signal having different amplitudes, said apparatus comprising:

• a converting means for converting said analog signal into a digital signal where said digital signal is comprised of a series of digital samples;
• processing means for processing each of said digital samples into a compensated sample where the resulting series of compensated samples from said compensated signal, said compensated signal being a digitized representation of said analog signal compensated for baseline shift and asymmetry where said compensated signal has digitized positive peaks and digitized negative peaks of a defined absolute digital value, said processing means includes:
• a baseline correction means responsive to a digital sample from said converting means for generating a digital baseline corrected sample from said digital sample;
• and
• an asymmetry correction means responsive to the baseline corrected sample from said baseline correction means for generating the digital compensated signal having positive and negative peaks of a defined absolute amplitude and no baseline shift.