Motor spin up with auxiliary power boost

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a disc drive having a data storage disc; and a motor supporting the disc in rotation;

control circuitry operable to spin up the disc drive by accelerating the motor to a steady state speed by:

beginning the spin up by energizing the motor with only a primary power which relates to a corresponding non-boosted spin up time to ready (“TTR”) interval of time necessary for the motor to accelerate to the steady state speed;

before the motor is accelerated to the steady state speed, comparing an amount of auxiliary power that is available from a battery to a predefined amount of auxiliary power that, when used to boost the primary power, relates to a corresponding boosted spin up TTR interval of time that is less than the non-boosted TTR; and

before the motor is accelerated to the steady state speed and if the battery has at least the predefined amount auxiliary power corresponding to the boosted spin up TTR that is less than the non-boosted TTR, then boosting the primary power by discharging the battery for a predetermined boost interval.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising spin up boost logic computer instructions configured to control the control circuitry and residing in the disc drive.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 2 comprising a plurality of disc drives contained in a storage array.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 further comprising spin up boost logic computer instructions configured to control the control circuitry and residing in the storage array externally to the plurality of disc drives.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising an ammeter that informs the controller of the amount of current that is discharged from the battery.

6. An apparatus, comprising:

a battery;

a data storage disc;

a motor supporting the disc in rotation; and

control circuitry operable to compare an amount of auxiliary power that is available from the battery to a predefined amount of auxiliary power that, when used to boost a primary power to the motor, relates to a corresponding boosted TTR interval of time that is less than a non-boosted TTR interval of time corresponding to energizing the motor with only the primary power, and if the battery has at least the predefined amount of auxiliary power corresponding to the boosted TTR that is less than the non-boosted TTR then boost the primary power to the motor by discharging the battery for a predetermined boost interval.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the battery and the control circuitry reside in a portable module that is removably pluggable into a communications port of a device selected from the group consisting of a disc drive, an external power module, and a power transmission device between the disc drive and the external power module.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising a charger for selectively recharging the discharged battery.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the control circuitry comprises a processor-based controller configured to activate a switching element to combine the primary power and the battery power.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the controller activates the switching element to decouple the battery power from the primary power during at least a portion of the spin up.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the controller activates the switching element to decouple the battery power from the primary power when the primary power is removed from the motor.

12. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the control circuitry comprises a plurality of power channels and is operable to individually boost a power to each of the power channels.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the apparatus is a disc drive and the power channels collectively supply the entire electrical requirements for the disc drive.

14. A method, comprising:

obtaining a data storage device having a battery, a data storage disc, and a motor operably supporting the disc in rotation;

beginning to accelerate the motor to a predetermined steady state speed by energizing the motor with only a primary power which relates to a corresponding non-boosted spin up time to ready (“TTR”) interval of time necessary for the motor to accelerate to the steady state speed;

comparing an amount of auxiliary power that is available from the battery to a predefined amount of auxiliary power that, when used to boost the primary power, relates to a corresponding boosted spin up TTR that is less than the non-boosted TTR; and

if the comparing step indicates the battery has at least the predefined amount of auxiliary power corresponding to the boosted spin up TTR that is less than the non-boosted TTR, then during the accelerating step boosting the primary power to the motor by discharging the battery.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the battery is a rechargeable battery and further comprising charging the battery after the boosting step.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the charging step comprises delaying the charging step after the boosting step is completed for a predetermined interval of time.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the accelerating step and the boosting step begin simultaneously.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the boosting step comprises discharging the battery in relation to a predetermined value of an operational parameter.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the boosting step comprises discharging the battery in relation to a predetermined elapsed time.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the boosting step comprises discharging the battery in relation to a predetermined voltage drop of the battery.