utilizes an integrated circuit to report and or make available battery data to the device 8 the battery 10 may include a microcontroller 305 and an encryption engine 310 as will be described further below the encryption engine 310 executed a predetermined algorithm on a stored battery key in response to a request from the device 8 to authenticate the battery 10 the battery data may include but is not limited to a battery type a model number a serial number a manufacturer identifier a discharge rate a predicted remaining capacity a temperature and a voltage the battery 10 may also provide an almost discharged alarm when the battery 10 is almost completely discharged allowing the device 8 to execute a proper shutdown procedure to prevent loss and or corruption of data stored on the device 8 the device 8 includes a conventional primary processor not shown which executes applications and interfaces with components of the device 8 e g a memory a radio transceiver a display screen a keypad a speaker a microphone etc as known by those of skill in the art the primary processor typically consumes a significant amount of power from the battery 10 and as such may be powered down at predetermined times to conserve power when the primary processor is powered down the device 8 is in a power save mode but a secondary processor 15 remains powered maintaining selected operations of the device 8 while consuming substantially less power from the battery 10 in the exemplary embodiments the secondary processor 15 is a small processor which remains powered whether the primary processor is powered or.