25/11/2005

The Eduard Rhein award 2005, one of the most prestigious European IT prizes, was awarded to IBM researchers Evangelos Eleftheriou and Francois Dolivo, as well as to Professor Hisashi Kobayashi of Princeton University, for their innovative contribution to the data-recording technology in hard-disk drives. The awarding of the prize took place in Munich on October 15th, 2005.

The researchers' work has contributed significantly in the increase of recording densities and data rates. In particular, in 1970-71, Prof. Kobayashi suggested a new data storage technique, known today as PRML, for the further increase in the amount of data that can be stored on computer hard-disks and the ability to retrieve them with fewer errors. Francois Dolivo and his colleagues developed this idea and as a result, in 1990, IBM introduced into the market a PRML technique hard-disc. The ability to save data continued to increase in the following years in a rate of 50% per annum, and nowadays the technology is used widely in the industry for PC, MP3 and iPod applications.

In 2000, the new NPML method (Noise-Predictive Maximum-Likelihood) developed by the Greek researcher Evaggelos Eleftheriou, was fitted in IBM hard-drive products for the increase in the recording capacity. This method permits the further increase of the linear recording density by 50-60%. It repeatedly predicts noise in the read signal, in every stage of the readout process, from detection to post-processing, and it removes the correlation of noise signals through the use of a appropriate filter. In parallel, noise power is decreased, i.e. the signal-to-noise ration is improved.

It ought to be noted that the Eduard Rhein Foundation was founded in 1976, its aim being the recognition and promotion of research achievements in the technological sectors of radio, television and information technology. Among the scientists awarded are Claude E. Shannon, considered to be the father of modern IT, and Konrad Zuse, who developed the first freely programmable computer and Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web

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Source: IBM Zurich Research Laboratory