A monolithic active equalizer in 2-µm CMOS technology is described, suitable for use in magnetic storage read channels employing peak-detection. Computer simulation of the channel and numerical optimization of equalizer performance have led to a 4-pole equalizer which outperforms conventional 7-pole linear-phase pulse-slimming equalizers. Circuits with matched and scaled stray capacitances use low transconductance amplifiers, with a total on-chip power dissipation of 40 mW (excluding output buffers). A master-slave architecture tunes filter pole frequencies and quality factors (Q) to their nominal values against process and temperature variations.