Patent ID: 7889452

Claim:
A timer in a hard disk drive preamplifier, comprising: a first switch to selectively store charge in a first storage device based on an input signal, the first storage device receiving a first current and storing the charge to cause the first storage device to have a first voltage that increases at a first rate; a compensation device to cause the first voltage to be substantially equal to a second voltage after a predetermined time period; a trigger to output a signal when the first voltage is substantially equal to the second voltage, the predetermined time period controlling transition time between a first hard disk drive operating condition and a second hard disk drive operating condition different than the first operating condition; and a second switch to selectively store charge in a second storage device based on a second input signal, the second storage device receiving a second current and storing the charge to cause the second storage device to have a third voltage that increases at a second rate; and a second trigger to output a signal when the third voltage of the second storage device exceeds a fourth voltage.