Slider fly control

1. A disc drive data storage system, comprising:

a disc storage medium having a disc surface;

an armature;

a slider, coupled to the armature, supporting a transducer head for communicating with the disc storage medium, the slider is adapted to fly above the disc surface and to position the transducer head proximate the disc surface;

a memory adapted to store data representing a topography map of the disc surface; and

a controller, responsive to the memory, adapted to control a fly height of the slider above the disc surface as a function of the topography map of the disc surface, the fly height control is carried out independent of a sensed fly height feedback.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a microactuator, coupled to the slider, that actuates the fly height of the slider in response to a fly height control signal provided by the controller.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the fly height control signal is a function of a nominal fly height value and a topography map value for a location on the disc surface.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the microactuator is a capacitive microactuator.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the capacitive microactuator comprises a first capacitive electrode surface that is disposed on the slider and that faces a second portion of the disc surface that forms a second capacitive electrode.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the memory is non-volatile random access memory.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the memory is non-volatile magnetoresistive random access memory.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the memory includes shift registers.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the topography map of the disc surface is obtained by:

measuring a separation distance between a capacitance probe and the disc surface at a plurality of locations on the disc surface to obtain a plurality of separation distance values, wherein each one of the plurality of separation distance values corresponds to a different one of the plurality of locations; and

processing the plurality of separation distance values for the corresponding plurality of locations to obtain the topography map of the disc surface.

10. A method of controlling fly height of a slider in a disc drive, comprising steps of:

(a) providing a fly height spacing between the slider and a disc surface;

(b) actuating the fly height spacing as a function of a received fly height control signal; and

(c) providing the fly height control signal as a function of a topography map of the disc surface and independent of a sensed fly height feedback.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the actuating step (b) is performed capacitively.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the capacitive actuation is performed by a first capacitive electrode surface that is disposed on the slider and that faces a second portion of the disc that forms a second capacitive electrode.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the topography map of the disc surface is obtained by:

measuring a separation distance between a capacitance probe and the disc surface at a plurality of locations on the disc surface to obtain a plurality of separation distance values, wherein each one of the plurality of separation distance values corresponds to a different one of the plurality of locations; and

processing the plurality of separation distance values for the corresponding plurality of locations to obtain the topography map of the disc surface.

14. A disc storage system comprising:

a slider supporting a transducer head for communicating with a disc storage medium, the slider adapted to fly above a disc surface of the disc storage medium and to position the transducer head proximate the disc surface; and

a controller means, responsive to the memory, adapted to control a fly height of the slider above the disc surface as a function of a topography map of the disc surface and independent of a sensed fly height feedback.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 further comprising a microactuator, coupled to the slider, that actuates the fly height of the slider in response to a fly height control signal provided by the controller means.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the fly height control signal is a function of a nominal fly height value and a topography map value for a location on the disc surface.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the microactuator is a capacitive microactuator.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the capacitive microactuator comprises a first capacitive electrode surface that is disposed on the slider and that faces a second portion of the disc surface that forms a second capacitive electrode.

19. A disc drive data storage system, comprising:

a disc storage medium having a disc surface;

an armature;

a slider, coupled to the armature, supporting a transducer head for communicating with the disc storage medium, the slider is adapted to fly above the disc surface and to position the transducer head proximate the disc surface;

a memory adapted to store data representing a topography map of the disc surface;

a controller, responsive to the memory, adapted to control a fly height of the slider above the disc surface as a function of the topography map of the disc surface; and

a microactuator, coupled to the slider, that actuates the fly height of the slider in response to a fly height control signal provided by the controller,

wherein the fly height control signal is a function of an average fly height value determined from a read signal amplitude and a topography map value for a location on the disc surface.