Peter A. Franaszek

Biography

Known for developing codes that not only pushed the theoretical limits but were also practical enough to be implemented in current technology, Peter Franaszek set the direction for modern constrained coding in digital recording and communication systems. His pioneering work on fundamental aspects of constrained codes, and algorithms for their construction, served as the basis for key components in the proliferation of hard disk drives, compact discs and DVDs. Specific codes he developed have been used extensively in commercial data storage and transmission products. Dr. Franaszek was the first to develop practical methods for the construction of run-length limited (RLL) codes, which ensure that the boundary lengths between bits of data are neither too short nor too long to be detected, resulting in maximal storage density. His (2,7) RLL code found widespread application in magnetic and optical recording in the 1980s. More recently, Dr. Franaszek, along with Albert Widmer, designed the (8B/10B) D.C. balanced code used, for example, in Gigabit Ethernet and Fiber Channel systems.

Dr. Franaszek’s research interests have more generally included a variety of analytical issues in digital systems. His contributions include those to I/O architectures, switching networks, disk defragmentation algorithms, concurrency control techniques, operating system schedulers and compression algorithms and architectures for systems with memory compression. An IEEE Fellow, he was the recipient of the 1989 IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award and the 2002 ACM Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award. Dr. Franaszek is currently a research staff member emeritus at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.