A battery pack which stably implements a protection function of a
secondary battery mainly under software control and reduces a circuit
installation area and parts costs. The battery pack has a discharge
current cutoff means and a charge current cutoff means for selectively
cutting off discharge and charge currents of the secondary battery. The
battery pack has a protection process means for controlling operations of
the discharge current cutoff means and the charge current cutoff means in
accordance with an inter-electrode voltage between positive and negative
electrodes of the secondary battery. The battery pack executes an
initialization process for the protection process means at a timing when
a power supply voltage supplied to the protection process means reaches
lowest voltage to start the protection process means. Further, the
battery pack sets a threshold voltage needed for operation control of the
discharge current cutoff means and the charge current cutoff means to
start the protection process at another timing when the power supply
voltage reaches voltage that is higher than lowest voltage and is smaller
than or equal to a voltage for stable driving.