Systems and methods for detecting a reference pattern

A method for determining a location of a reference pattern on a storage medium, the method comprising:

• receiving a series of digital samples corresponding to a reference pattern on a medium, wherein the reference pattern includes a periodic pattern and a mark pattern;
• performing a discrete Fourier transform on a subset of the series of digital samples to yield a phase of the periodic pattern;
• interpolating a subset of the series digital samples using the phase of the periodic pattern to yield an interpolated series of digital samples, wherein the subset of the series of digital samples are defined by a window of a defined length, and wherein the subset of the series of digital samples is a first subset of the series of digital samples;
• searching the interpolated series of digital samples for the mark pattern, wherein a location of the detected mark pattern is identified the mark pattern is detected
• adding an additional digital sample to the series of digital samples;
• sliding the window across the series of digital samples to yield a second subset of the series of digital samples that includes the additional digital sample;
• summing the absolute values of each of the second subset of digital samples to yield a sum of samples;
• and
• comparing a derivative of the sum of samples with a threshold value, wherein an enable signal is asserted when the sum of samples exceeds the threshold value.

A storage system, the storage system comprising:

• a storage medium including a reference pattern having a periodic pattern and a mark pattern.
• a read/write head assembly disposed in relation to the storage medium;
• an analog to digital conversion circuit, wherein the analog to digital conversion circuit is operable to receive an electrical signal corresponding to the reference pattern via the read/write head assembly and to provide a corresponding series of digital samples;
• a location detector circuit, wherein the location detector circuit includes:
• a sliding window phase calculator circuit, wherein the sliding window phase calculator circuit is operable to receive a series of digital samples corresponding to a reference pattern including a periodic pattern and a mark pattern, wherein sliding window phase calculator circuit is operable to determine a phase select output based at least in part on samples of the periodic pattern included in a subset of the series of digital samples;
• and wherein the length of the sliding window corresponds to the number of digital samples included in the subset of the series of digital samples;
• a delay circuit, wherein the delay circuit is operable to delay the series of digital samples and to provide a series of delayed samples;
• a mark detector circuit, wherein the mark detector circuit interpolates the series of delayed samples using the phase select output to yield a series of interpolated samples, and wherein the mark detector circuit is operable to query the series of interpolated samples for the mark pattern;
• and
• wherein the delay imposed by the delay circuit is selected from a group consisting of:
• approximately one half of the number of periods corresponding to the number of samples in the subset of the series of digital samples, and exactly one half of the number of periods corresponding to the number of samples in the subset of the series of digital samples.