Battery fuel gauge for display in battery-powered equipment

This invention generally relates to portable battery-powered equipment. In particular, the invention relates to methods and apparatus for displaying a fuel gauge icon representing the state of a battery in battery-powered equipment. A method and an apparatus for informing a system user that the full charge capacity of the battery is less than the design capacity. One horizontal fuel gauge icon for each battery is displayed on the host system display panel. The fuel gauge is displayed as three overlapping rectangles which are left justified. The first layer is a dashed outline, always the same width, representing the design capacity of the battery. The second layer is a solid outline representing the full capacity as a percentage of the design capacity. As a battery wears, this level will become a smaller percentage of the full rated capacity indicated by the dashed line. The third layer is a filled rectangle representing the present (actual) capacity as a percentage of the full capacity.