Disk drive system having hybrid analog/digital pulse peak instance/amplitude data detection channels

In a disk drive system having an output providing an analog signal including a sequence of analog data pulses, Dpsj, recovered from stored data on a storage disk, the data pulses having pulse widths of about width Pw and peaks having magnitudes of about Apj at instances of about tpj, a digital peak detection channel comprising:

• a. an analog input of a device receiving continuous analog values of the sequence of signal data pulses;
• b. the device responsive to a sampling clock by sampling said analog signal at 3 successive sample clock times k−1, k, (k+1), and converting each said analog value to a corresponding digital value x1, x2, x3, the sampling clock having a sample period of less than about Pw/3;
• c. a digital output of the device outputting said sampled digital values x1, x2, x3 to corresponding registers REG1, REG2, REG3;
• and
• d. a comparator connected to said registers, said comparator having a peak detect output with a logic signal level at a true logic value when the logic value ((x2>x1) AND (x2>x3)) is true, whereby a peak of a data pulse is indicated to have occurred between the sample period k minus one period and the sample period k plus one period.