in the following detailed description , numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention . however , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details . in other instances , well - known methods , procedures , components and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the present invention . hdds consume power even when idle . most traditional hdds are 20 gigabytes or greater . applications of a computer system may be stored in the hard disk drive . an application may comprise data and instructions . in comparison to traditional hdds , mini - hdds store less data . for example , a mini - hdd may store one gigabyte of data . however , mini - hdds may consume less power and provide higher reliability . therefore , a system that utilizes a mini - hdd in addition to a traditional hdd may provide power savings by allowing the traditional hdd to be powered off during idle . the mini - hdd may be used for storing highly utilized applications . fig1 depicts a system having a tiered secondary memory architecture . cpu 110 is coupled to main memory 120 , level 2 cache 130 , and chipset 140 . the cpu 110 may comprise an on - chip level 1 cache . the level 2 cache 130 temporarily stores data and instructions transferred to and from the cpu 110 . chipset 140 is coupled to scsi host adapter 150 . the scsi host adapter 150 is coupled to a traditional hdd 160 and a mini - hdd 170 . both the traditional hdd 160 and the mini - hdd 170 are internal to the system . applications that are often accessed are stored in mini - hdd 170 . moreover , the operating system may also be stored on the mini - hdd 170 . at powerup , the operating system may be loaded from the mini - hdd 170 . less often used applications are stored in the traditional hdd 160 . thus , when the cpu 110 wants to run an application from the mini - hdd 170 , the applications are obtained from the traditional hdd 160 or the mini - hdd 170 . the chipset 140 comprises buffers and memory address decoders to enable the cpu 110 to communicate with the traditional hdd 160 and the mini - hdd 170 . the chipset 140 may also comprise a plurality of counters to track the number of times each application on the system is used . this enables the system to determine which applications are to be stored in the mini - hdd 170 . for this embodiment of the invention , the mini - hdd may have a five gigabyte storage capacity . the user may determine which applications are to be stored in mini - hdd 170 . for instance , applications that the user deems to be most important may be stored in mini - hdd 170 . alternatively , the system may determine which applications are most important by the frequency of use . the bridge between the chipset 140 and the traditional hdd 160 and the mini - hdd 170 may be a small computer system interface ( scsi ) bus . if a scsi bus is used , a scsi host adapter 150 may be used to send and receive messages on the scsi bus . the scsi host adapter 150 may also check at powerup to confirm that the traditional hdd 160 and the mini - hdd 170 are properly connected to the bus . alternatively , the traditional hdd 160 and the mini - hdd 170 may be integrated device electronics ( ide ) drives . the traditional hdd 160 and the mini - hdd 170 may be coupled to the chipset 140 without connection to a scsi bus . the traditional hdd 160 and the mini - hdd 170 may comprise the control and interface electronics necessary to connect directly to the chipset 140 . for one embodiment of the invention , the system of fig1 is a battery powered portable computer system . for another embodiment of the invention , the system is a cellular phone . fig2 depicts a flowchart for optimizing the power consumption of a computer system having a tiered secondary architecture . following system powerup 205 , the applications run by the system are tracked in operation 210 . the tracking may be performed by the operating system or a tracking circuit . the tracking circuit may comprise a plurality of counters or a state machine . the tracking circuit may be built using combinational logic . the tracking circuit may be integrated as part of the chipset 140 . operation 220 then determines if the system is in a power optimization mode . if the system is in a power optimization mode , then the applications that have a high utilization are moved to the mini - hdd 170 in operation 230 . high utilization may be defined as applications that have been accessed the most number of times during a given time period . operation 260 powers off the traditional hdd 160 when the traditional hdd 160 is idle to conserve power . operation 210 continues to monitor application usage and moves applications to the mini - hdd 170 when appropriate . the traditional hdd 160 may be powered back when the system receives a request to access data from the traditional hdd 160 . if the system is not in a power optimization mode , operation 240 checks if the system is in a performance optimization mode . some applications may offer improved performance if accessed from the traditional hdd 160 . thus , if the system is in a performance optimization , then the high utilization applications may be placed on the traditional hdd 160 . for another embodiment of the invention , the system automatically moves the high utilization applications to the mini - hdd 170 without determining whether the system is in a power optimization mode or a performance optimization mode . fig3 depicts a graph of the power optimization of a computer system having a tiered secondary architecture in comparison with a computer system having a single secondary memory . x - axis represents a percentage utilization of a mini - hdd . y - axis 320 represents the power saved in watts over a system having only a traditional hdd . a system having a mini - hdd may reduce power consumption during all states including active , idle , and suspend . in addition , power savings may be achieved during bootup . each of the curves 330 , 340 , and 350 represent a system that utilizes both a mini - hdd and a traditional hdd . curve 330 is a system that has 60 percent of its applications &# 39 ; capacity stored on a mini - hdd and 40 percent of its applications &# 39 ; capacity stored on a traditional hdd . curve 340 is a system that has 80 percent of its applications &# 39 ; capacity stored on a hdd and 20 percent of its applications &# 39 ; capacity stored on a traditional hdd . curve 350 is a system that has 90 percent of its applications &# 39 ; capacity stored on a hdd and 10 percent of its applications &# 39 ; capacity stored on a traditional hdd . curve 350 shows the greatest overall power savings over a system utilizing only a traditional hdd . for instance , when the mini - hdd of a system having 90 percent of its applications &# 39 ; capacity stored on the mini - hdd has 100 percent utilization , the system may conserve approximately 1 . 4 watts over a system that only uses a traditional hdd . in comparison , curve 340 shows that a system having 80 percent of its applications &# 39 ; capacity stored on a mini - hdd saves approximately 1 . 3 watts over a traditional hdd system at 100 percent utilization . curve 330 shows that a system having 60 percent of its applications &# 39 ; capacity stored on a mini - hdd saves approximately 0 . 95 watts over a traditional hdd system at 100 percent utilization . each of the curves 330 , 340 , and 350 show a reduction in power savings as the percentage utilization of the mini - hdd decreases . the less the mini - hdd is utilized , the more likely that the traditional hdd is not idle and thus consuming power . power conservation may help to extend the battery life of the system . in the foregoing specification the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof . it will , however , be evident that various modification and changes may be made thereto without departure from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims . the specification and drawings are , accordingly , to be regarded in an illustrative rather than restrictive sense .