Adjusting receiver parameters without known data

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an indication of whether data associated with a sector is error correcting code (ECC) uncorrectable;

in the event that the indication is that the data is uncorrectable, determining a plurality of statistical information outputs using a detector; and

using at least a subset of the plurality of statistical information outputs to adjust a set of one or more receiver parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a plurality of statistical information outputs comprises determining a plurality of statistical information outputs without known data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a statistical information output is associated with a state along a decision data sequence.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a statistical information output is associated with a time instance along a decision data sequence.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of one or more receiver parameters are associated with a read channel of a hard disk system.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein an indication that data associated with a sector is ECC uncorrectable is received from a decoder.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sector is associated with a hard disk.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein a sector is ECC uncorrectable comprises a sector associated with one or more unreadable bits.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of statistical information outputs corresponds to an error event associated with a detection process.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein using a subset of the plurality of statistical information outputs includes:

sorting the plurality of statistical information outputs into a sorted list based at least in part on magnitudes corresponding to the plurality of statistical information outputs;

selecting one or more error events corresponding to a predetermined number of statistical information outputs from the end of the sorted list associated with a statistical information output associated with the smallest magnitude; and

processing the selected one or more error events to generate a new set of values for the set of one or more receiver parameters.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein using a subset of the plurality of statistical information outputs includes:

selecting one or more error events corresponding to one or more of the plurality of the statistical information outputs associated with a magnitude below a threshold; and

processing the selected one or more error events to generate a new set of values for the set of one or more receiver parameters.

12. The method of claim 1 , the set of one or more receiver parameters includes at least one of is the following: a parameter associated with an equalizer, a parameter associated with a pattern dependent finite impulse response (FIR) filter, a parameter associated with a soft-output Viterbi algorithm detector.

13. A system, comprising:

a processor configured to:

receive an indication of whether data associated with a sector is error correcting code (ECC) uncorrectable;

in the event that the indication is that the data is uncorrectable, determine a plurality of statistical information outputs using a detector; and

use at least a subset of the plurality of statistical information outputs to adjust a set of one or more receiver parameters; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein to determine a plurality of statistical information outputs comprises the processor configured to determine a plurality of statistical information outputs without known data.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein a statistical information output is associated with a state along a decision data sequence.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein a statistical information output is associated with a time instance along a decision data sequence.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the plurality of statistical information outputs corresponds to an error event associated with a detection process.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein to use a subset of the plurality of statistical information outputs includes the processor configured to:

sort the plurality of statistical information outputs into a sorted list based at least in part on magnitudes corresponding to the plurality of statistical information outputs;

select one or more error events corresponding to a predetermined number of statistical information outputs from the end of the sorted list associated with a statistical information output associated with the smallest magnitude; and

process the selected one or more error events to generate a new set of values for the set of one or more receiver parameters.

19. The system of claim 13 , wherein to use a subset of the plurality of statistical information outputs includes the processor configured to:

select one or more error events corresponding to one or more of the plurality of the statistical information outputs associated with a magnitude below a threshold; and

process the selected one or more error events to generate a new set of values for the set of one or more receiver parameters.

20. A non-transitory computer program product, the computer program product being embodied in a computer readable medium and comprising computer instructions for causing a processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving an indication of whether data associated with a sector is error correcting code (ECC) uncorrectable;

in the event that the indication is that the data is uncorrectable, determining a plurality of statistical information outputs using a detector; and

using at least a subset of the plurality of statistical information outputs to adjust a set of one or more receiver parameters.