DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
1. Claims 1, 12-15, 18, 21, and 23 are currently amended.
2. Claims 11, 16, and 19 are cancelled.
3. Claims 1-10,12-15,17-18 and 20-23 are pending.
4. Claims 1-10,12-15,17-18 and 20-23 are rejected.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
5. A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on February 27, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
6. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 15, and 18 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
7. Claims 1-2, 5, 7, 13-15, 17-18, and 20-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morelli Jr. et al. US 9965303 B2 in view of Millin et al. US 20190327179 A1.
8. With regard to claim 1, Morelli Jr. teaches:
An apparatus comprising:
a first processing device comprising a physical hardware controller (Col. 3, lines 26-30, In some embodiments, the one or more resources comprises at least one of (i) a hardware component controllable by a server processor and (ii) a software component storable on a storage module in electronic communication with the emulator server.);
the first processing device being configured for coupling with a second processing device (Fig. 1; Col. 5, lines 57-64, As shown in FIG. 1, the emulator system 120 may communicate with a client device 110, a web server 130 and/or a database 140 over a network 150. Similarly, each of the client device 110, the web server 130 and/or the database 140 may also communicate with each other over the network 150. It will be understood that, for ease of exposition, only one client device 110 is illustrated, but one or more client devices may be used; Examiner’s Note: The emulator system is the first processing device and the client device is the second processing device. The client device connects to the emulator system in order to access remoted hardware resources for emulation. Therefore, they are able to be coupled to each other.);
the first processing device being configured to perform steps of:
receiving, from a host operating system of the second processing device, a discovery request (Col. 2, lines 5-8, Some embodiments relate to a method for emulating a computer product at an emulator server. In some embodiments, the method comprising: receiving an emulation request to emulate the computer product [...]);
identifying one or more emulation modules running on the first processing device, the one or more emulation modules emulating one or more physical hardware devices configured for attachment to the second processing device (Col. 3, lines 26-30, In some embodiments, the one or more resources comprises at least one of (i) a hardware component controllable by a server processor and (ii) a software component storable on a storage module in electronic communication with the emulator server; Col. 6, lines 5-39, The emulator system 120 may include one or more components for providing emulation of software and/or hardware components. The components may include a session server 122, a broker server 124 and an emulator server 126. Each of the components may be associated with an identifier. That is, the session server 122 may be associated with a session server identifier, the broker server 124 may be associated with a broker server identifier and the emulator server 126 may be associated with an emulator server identifier. Each of the session server 122, the broker server 124 and the emulator server 126 can include a processing component. For example, the session server 122 may include a session processor module. The broker server 124 may include a broker processor module, and the emulator server 126 may include an emulator processor module. In some embodiments, the session server 122 and the broker server 124 may be provided on the same computer server. It is also possible, in some embodiments, for the session processor module and the broker processor module to be provided individually or together as one processor component. It will be understood that, although one broker server 124 and one emulator server 126 are shown, one or more broker servers 124 and one or more emulator servers 126 may be provided. The session server 122 can generally operate to create one or more sessions when a user request is received and to track each created session based on a session identifier. For example, the session server 122 may receive a request from the client device 110 for initiating an emulation session. The session server 122 can then create an emulation session corresponding to the received request and to assign a unique emulation session identifier to that emulation session.);
providing, to the host operating system of the second processing device, a response to the discovery request, the response indicating a set of capabilities associated with the emulated one or more physical hardware devices (Col. 9, lines 60-67, Based on the received emulation request and corresponding emulation data, the session server 122 can determine the emulation being requested by the user. The session server 122 can then determine one or more resources required for providing the requested emulation. The required resources can include one or more hardware, firmware and/or software components that are required for conducting the requested emulation.);
obtaining a device identifier of the second processing device (Col. 8, lines 27-38, The operating system module 230 identifies the operating system currently used at the client device 110 and operates to resolve any compatibility problems between the operating system at the client device 110 and the emulator system 120. The client hardware module 240 identifies hardware components available at the client device 110. The available hardware components may be stored in the database 140. As described above, the client hardware module 240 may also be used as part of the automated authentication process for randomly selecting one or more hardware components on the client device 110 and recording unique identifiers corresponding to the selected hardware components.);
determining, utilizing the obtained device identifier of the second processing devices, a subset of a plurality of remote services that are (i) capable of running utilizing hardware resources of the physical hardware controller and (ii) provisioned as remote services attached to the second processing device, wherein determining the subset of the plurality of remote services that are (i) capable of running utilizing the hardware resources of the physical hardware controller and (ii) provisioned as remote services attached to the second processing device is based at least in part on information provided by a third processing device providing a remote service software server hosting the plurality of remote services, the remote service software server maintaining a mapping of the device identifier to attached ones of the plurality of remote services enabling dynamic attachment and de-attachment of respective remote services of the plurality of remote services to the second processing device (Col. 6, lines 5-27, The emulator system 120 may include one or more components for providing emulation of software and/or hardware components. The components may include a session server 122, a broker server 124 and an emulator server 126. Each of the components may be associated with an identifier. That is, the session server 122 may be associated with a session server identifier, the broker server 124 may be associated with a broker server identifier and the emulator server 126 may be associated with an emulator server identifier. Each of the session server 122, the broker server 124 and the emulator server 126 can include a processing component. For example, the session server 122 may include a session processor module. The broker server 124 may include a broker processor module, and the emulator server 126 may include an emulator processor module. In some embodiments, the session server 122 and the broker server 124 may be provided on the same computer server. It is also possible, in some embodiments, for the session processor module and the broker processor module to be provided individually or together as one processor component; Col. 9 lines 60 – Col. 10 lines 37, Based on the received emulation request and corresponding emulation data, the session server 122 can determine the emulation being requested by the user. The session server 122 can then determine one or more resources required for providing the requested emulation. The required resources can include one or more hardware, firmware and/or software components that are required for conducting the requested emulation. In some embodiments, the database 140, or the session server database, may include data indicating the hardware, firmware and/or software components required for implementing different emulations and therefore, the session server 122 may determine the required hardware, firmware and/or software components for the requested emulation from the database 140, or the session server database. The session server 122 then operates to associate, or link, the required hardware, firmware, and/or software components with the emulation session identifier. For example, the session server 122 may associate, or link, identifiers corresponding to the required hardware components with the emulation session identifier by storing the required hardware component identifiers in association with emulation session identifier in the session server database. At 320, the session server 122 selects a broker server 124 from one or more broker servers 124. The session server 122 may select the broker sever 124 based on, at least, the emulation session identifier for the emulation session. In some embodiments, the session server 122 may select the broker server 124 based on the resources, such as hardware, firmware and/or software components, that are required for conducting the emulation session. The session server 122 may retrieve an address for the selected broker server 124 from the database 140 or the session server database. The address for the selected broker server 124 may be an internet protocol (IP) address. At 330, the selected broker server 124 operates to identify one or more emulator servers 126 for providing the emulation session corresponding to the emulation request. In some embodiments, the selected broker server 124 can be associated with a set of capable emulator servers, of a plurality of emulator servers 126. The set of capable emulator servers include one or more emulator servers 126 that can operate to provide the one or more resources required to provide the emulation.); and
executing the determined subset of the plurality of remote services attached to the second processing device utilizing the one or more emulation modules running on the first processing device by performing processing of the determined subset of the plurality of remote services utilizing hardware resources of the physical hardware controller and providing results of said processing to the second processing device via the emulated one or more physical hardware devices (Col. 1, lines 28-36, An emulator operates to imitate a computer product in an emulation session. The imitated computer product can be provided to a client device. The computer product can be a computer system, an operating environment, a software application, and/or one or more hardware and software components. The emulation system facilitates the emulation session by translating and processing instructions received from the client device into a format compatible with the emulated computer product; Col. 21, lines 52-57, The emulator server 126 may proceed to provide the emulation pursuant to the emulation request received from the client device 110 after the processor module 614 initializes the corresponding hardware emulation component 656, operating system component 658, and the application component 654 within the partitioned memory 650.).
Although Morelli Jr. teaches of a dynamic selection process when choosing an emulation servers (see Col. 13, lines 7-14), Morelli Jr. fails to teach that the dynamic process specifically enables dynamic attachment and de-attachment of respective remote services of the plurality of remote services to the second processing device.
However, in analogous art, Millin teaches:
enabling dynamic attachment and de-attachment of respective remote services of the plurality of remote services to the second processing device ([0064] Virtual machines 308 may be embodied by one or more of computing device 100 or server cluster 200. In general, a virtual machine is an emulation of a computing system, and mimics the functionality (e.g., processor, memory, and communication resources) of a physical computer; [0108] Managed network 300 may use a third-party network for computing resources, such server devices may be configured to provide storage and/or deploy applications and services to client devices 302 and customers. The third-party network may also be referred to as a cloud or datacenter. As an example, managed network 300 may the computing resources of a third-party network to meet growing or fluctuating computational needs, document control and security, and to enable remote access to applications and services. The third-party provider may dynamically allocate computing resources for managed network 300. Examples of such computing resources may include processing power, data storage, and networking services, among others.);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Morelli Jr. with the teachings of Millin to enable dynamic attachment and de-attachment of respective remote services of the plurality of remote services to the second processing device. Similarly to Morelli Jr., Millin teaches of a remote network service platform that provides resources and/or deploys applications and services to client devices ([0108]; [0144]; [0146]). Moreover, Millin teaches of dynamically allocate resources for the network. This allows the network to meet growing or fluctuating computational needs ([0108]). This ability to automatically modify the allocations of reserved and on-demand computing resources provides the improvements of more flexibility for managed network 300 and reduced excess allocations of reserved computing resources, as discussed in Millin ([0147]).
9. With regard to claim 2, Morelli Jr. further teaches:
wherein the first processing device is configured for coupling with the second processing device utilizing at least one fabric connection, the at least one fabric connection comprising at least one of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) fabric connection and a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) fabric connection (Col. 7, lines 4-8, The hardware modules provided on the client device 110 may include, without limitations, any known hardware components for operating the client device 110. For example, the hardware modules may include an interface module for receiving and/or transmitting data (e.g., a USB port, one or more peripheral ports, etc.),).
10. With regard to claim 5, Morelli Jr. further teaches:
wherein the first processing device comprises a process and memory space executing a standalone operating system separate from the host operating system of the second processing device (Fig. 1; Col. 6, lines 56-62, The client device 110 may generally be any computing device capable of network communication. The client device 110 can include a processing component and a memory component. For example and without limitation, the client device 110 may be a personal computer, laptop, personal data assistant, cellular telephone, smart-phone device, tablet computer, and/or wireless device; Col. 20, lines 9-19, With reference now to both FIGS. 6A and 6B, a process of providing an emulation is described. FIG. 6B illustrates an example emulation within a partitioned memory 650. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 6B, the partitioned memory 650 includes, at least, a user profile component 652, an application component 654, a hardware emulation component 656, an operating system (OS) component 658, and a virtual external bus component 660. In some embodiments, the application component 654 may include one or more application instances, such as 654a, 654b and 654c; Examiner’s Note: The client device has a separate process and memory executing an OS than the emulator system with its own OS component.).
11. With regard to claim 7, Molleri Jr. teaches the apparatus of claim 1 emulator servers, but fails to explicitly teach that the emulator servers are implemented utilizing at least one of one or more software containers, one or more virtual machines, and one or more microservices.
However, in analogous art, Millin teaches:
wherein the one or more emulation modules are implemented utilizing at least one of one or more software containers, one or more virtual machines, and one or more microservices ([0064] Virtual machines 308 may be embodied by one or more of computing device 100 or server cluster 200. In general, a virtual machine is an emulation of a computing system, and mimics the functionality (e.g., processor, memory, and communication resources) of a physical computer.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Molleri Jr. with the teachings of Millin wherein the one or more emulation modules are implemented utilizing at least one of one or more software containers, one or more virtual machines, and one or more microservices. Molleri Jr. teaches of emulating a computer product at an emulator server. Similarly, Millin teaches that virtual machines can be embodied by a server cluster and are emulations of a computing system ([0064]). By utilizing virtual machines for the emulation modules, virtual machines 308 may be managed by a centralized server device or application that facilitates allocation of physical computing resources to individual virtual machines, as well as performance and error reporting. Enterprises often employ virtual machines in order to allocate computing resources in an efficient, as needed fashion, as discussed in Millin ([0064]). Therefore, allowing developers to simulate hardware configurations on a single machine without largely affecting the host system.
12. With regard to claim 13, Molleri Jr. further teaches:
wherein at least one remote service in the determined subset of the plurality of remote services is provisioned as a remote service attached to the second processing device is further provisioned as a remote service attached one or more additional processing devices, the second processing device and the one or more additional processing devices comprising respective client devices associated with at least one of (Col. 8, lines 59 – Col. 9, lines 3, After the web server 130 verifies the website login credentials for the user and/or the client device 110, the client device 110 gains access to the website and can proceed to initiate one or more emulation session on the emulator system 120. The session server 122 operates to receive requests from the client device 110 via the web server 130 for initiating one or more emulation sessions. These requests from the client device 110 may be referred to as emulation requests. Upon receipt of an emulation request, the session server 122 proceeds to implement the emulation request. In some embodiments, the session server 122 includes the web server 130, and therefore, also hosts the website.):
a same user; and two or more users in a same level of an organizational hierarchy of an enterprise (Col. 9, lines 47-59, In some embodiments, prior to creating the emulation session, the session server 122 may authenticate the client device 110 by comparing at least one of the user data and the client device data provided in the emulation request with the respective current user data stored in association with the user in the database 140 and the respective client device data stored in association with the database 140; In response to a successful authentication of the client device 110, the session server 122 can create the emulation session. However, when the authentication is unsuccessful, the session server 122 may not create the emulation session, and instead may provide an error message to the client device 110 indicating a failed authentication; Examiner’s Note: The emulation server provides emulation services to a client device of a same user by authenticating a user based data associated with said user.).
13. With regard to claim 14, Millin further teaches:
wherein at least a portion of the processing of the determined subset of the plurality of remote services is offloaded from the hardware resources of the physical hardware controller of the first processing device to a computing site remote from the first processing device and the second processing device ([0001] In order to avoid building and maintaining its own servers, an enterprise may use a third-party network, also referred to as a cloud or datacenter, to deploy various applications and services to the enterprise's employees, clients, and customers; [0054] In some embodiments, one or more instances of computing device 100 may be deployed to support an aPaaS architecture. The exact physical location, connectivity, and configuration of these computing devices may be unknown and/or unimportant to client devices. Accordingly, the computing devices may be referred to as “cloud-based” devices that may be housed at various remote data center locations; [0075] In some cases, a single server cluster of remote network management platform 320 may support multiple independent enterprises. Furthermore, as described below, remote network management platform 320 may include multiple server clusters deployed in geographically diverse data centers in order to facilitate load balancing, redundancy, and/or high availability.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Morelli Jr. with the teachings of Millin wherein at least a portion of the processing of the determined subset of the plurality of remote services is offloaded from the hardware resources of the physical hardware controller of the first processing device to a computing site remote from the first processing device and the second processing device. Molleri Jr. teaches of emulating a computer product at an emulator server. Similarly, Millin teaches that virtual machines can be embodied by a server cluster and are emulations of a computing system ([0064]). Moreover, Millin teaches of a third-party network that helps offload services to a remote location, such as a datacenter. This may include multiple server clusters deployed in geographically diverse data centers in order to facilitate load balancing, redundancy, and/or high availability, as discussed in Millin ([0075]). Therefore, enabling optimal resource usage.
14. Regarding claim 15, it is rejected under the same reasoning as claim 1 above. Therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
15. Regarding claim 17, it is rejected under the same reasoning as claim 14 above. Therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
16. Regarding claim 18, it is rejected under the same reasoning as claim 1 above. Therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
17. Regarding claim 20, it is rejected under the same reasoning as claim 14 above. Therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
18. With regard to claim 21, Morelli Jr. further teaches:
wherein the one or more emulation modules are configured to translate commands from the host operating system of the second processing device into requests for handling by the determined subset of the plurality of remote services (Col. 1, lines 28-36, An emulator operates to imitate a computer product in an emulation session. The imitated computer product can be provided to a client device. The computer product can be a computer system, an operating environment, a software application, and/or one or more hardware and software components. The emulation system facilitates the emulation session by translating and processing instructions received from the client device into a format compatible with the emulated computer product.).
19. With regard to claim 22, Morelli Jr. teaches:
wherein the one or more emulation modules are configured to communicate with the second processing device utilizing one or more drivers running on the host operating system of the second processing device (Col. 2, lines 34-54, In some embodiments, initializing the computer product at the emulator server comprises initializing an operating system; the one or more resources comprises at least one operation system component, the at least one operating system component being required for initializing the operating system; and when the at least one unavailable resource comprises the at least one operation system component, accessing the at least one unavailable resource at a remote emulator server comprises: providing a platform driver for the at least one operating system component; locating, from the database, the at least one operating system component at the remote emulator server; initializing, by the emulator server, the at least one operating system component at the remote emulator server; and providing operational data between the at least one operating system component and the emulator server via the virtual external bus interface; In some embodiments, providing the platform driver for the at least one operating system component comprises: bypassing one or more standard platform drivers provided at the emulator server via a bonded Transmission control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP) connection.).
20. Claims 3-4, 6, 12, and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morelli Jr. et al. US 9965303 B2 and Millin et al. US 20190327179 A1, as applied in claim 1, in further view of Habusha et al. US 10509758 B1.
21. With regard to claim 3, Morelli Jr. and Millin teach the apparatus of claim 1 but fail to explicitly teach wherein the first processing device is internally coupled to the second processing device as an embedded component of the second processing device.
However, in analogous art, Habusha teaches:
wherein the first processing device is internally coupled to the second processing device as an embedded component of the second processing device (Col. 1, lines 63 – Col. 2, lines 6, Peripheral devices can add functionality to, or extend the capabilities of, a computing system. Examples of peripheral devices include input devices (e.g., keyboards, mice, touchpads, etc.) storage devices, network interfaces, and so on. Because the peripheral devices attached to a computing system can be added or changed, peripheral devices provide a great deal of flexibility in constructing computing systems. Peripheral devices can be connected internally or externally and can communicate with the computing system—which can be referred to as the host system or host device—using a bus or bus complex.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Morelli Jr. and Millin with the teachings of Habusha wherein the first processing device is internally coupled to the second processing device as an embedded component of the second processing device. Together, Morelli Jr. and Millin teach of a first processing device provisioning services to the second processing device through an emulation module. Additionally, Habusha teaches that the device can be internally coupled, providing flexible methods of connecting peripheral devices (Col. 1, lines 63 – Col. 2, lines 6.).
22. With regard to claim 4, Habusha further teaches:
wherein the first processing device is externally coupled to the second processing device as an external pluggable component (Col. 1, lines 63 – Col. 2, lines 6, Peripheral devices can add functionality to, or extend the capabilities of, a computing system. Examples of peripheral devices include input devices (e.g., keyboards, mice, touchpads, etc.) storage devices, network interfaces, and so on. Because the peripheral devices attached to a computing system can be added or changed, peripheral devices provide a great deal of flexibility in constructing computing systems. Peripheral devices can be connected internally or externally and can communicate with the computing system—which can be referred to as the host system or host device—using a bus or bus complex; Col. 2, lines 29-54, Various hot-plug mechanisms exist. For example, the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) specification provides for hot-plug of PCIe-compatible components into a PCIe slot. A computing system that supports PCIe hot-plug includes hardware support, in the form of PCIe slots capable of accepting a device while the computing system is power on, detecting insertion or removal of a device, sending a signal to the operating system to indicate insertion or removal of a device, and/or providing power to a device when the device has been inserted. In some cases, the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) of the computing system may also need to support hot-plug, for example by being able to dynamically modify power requirements when devices are added or removed. A computing system that supports PCIe hot-plug also includes software support. Specifically, the operating system may be configured with procedures for adding or removing a hot-plugged device, including, for example, conducting device discovery and configuring a new device. Configuration of the new device can include assigning memory addresses to the new device and possibly reorganizing memory assigned to other devices. Examples of other types of devices that can be hot-plugged include Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394 (known as Firewire) devices, and others; Examiners’ Note: Peripheral devices can be connected externally, such as through a USB.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Molleri Jr. and Millin with the teachings of Habusha wherein the first processing device is externally coupled to the second processing device as an external pluggable component. Together, Molleri Jr. and Millin teach of a first processing device provisioning services to the second processing device through an emulation module. Additionally, Habusha teaches that the device can be externally coupled, providing flexible methods of connecting peripheral devices (Col. 1, lines 63 – Col. 2, lines 6; Col. 2, lines 29-54).
23. With regard to claim 6, Habusha further teaches:
wherein the first processing device comprises at least one of a single-board computer (SBC), a computer-on-module (COM), a system on a module (SOM), an embedded computer system, a system on chip (SoC), a system in a package (SiP), an integrated circuit, and a hardware accelerator (Col. 4, lines 55-61, The configurable peripheral device 110 is a device that, in various implementations, can emulate the functionality of a variety of different peripheral devices. As discussed further below, the configurable peripheral device 110 can include integrated circuits configured to emulate particular hardware functionality, such as a network interface, a storage device, a graphics processing unit, or some other functionality; Col. 5, lines 54-60, The host device 120 of the example system 100 can be a computing system such as a server. The host device 120 can include hardware 128, such as one or more integrated circuits configured as processors and/or memory, integrated circuits that include the firmware for the BIOS, electrical traces that form a processor bus, circuits that drive an internal clock, systems that control power, and so on.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Molleri Jr. and Millin with the teachings of Habusha wherein the first processing device comprises at least one of a single-board computer (SBC), a computer-on-module (COM), a system on a module (SOM), an embedded computer system, a system on chip (SoC), a system in a package (SiP), an integrated circuit, and a hardware accelerator. Additionally, Habusha teaches that the first processing device comprises of an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit allows the device to control certain things such as the firmware for the BIOS, electrical traces that form a processor bus, circuits that drive an internal clock, systems that control power, and so on (Col. 5, lines 54-60).
24. With regard to claim 12, Habusha further teaches:
wherein the one or more emulation modules are downloaded from the third processing device providing the remote service software server (Col. 10, lines 16-37, At 320, the session server 122 selects a broker server 124 from one or more broker servers 124. The session server 122 may select the broker sever 124 based on, at least, the emulation session identifier for the emulation session. In some embodiments, the session server 122 may select the broker server 124 based on the resources, such as hardware, firmware and/or software components, that are required for conducting the emulation session. The session server 122 may retrieve an address for the selected broker server 124 from the database 140 or the session server database. The address for the selected broker server 124 may be an internet protocol (IP) address. At 330, the selected broker server 124 operates to identify one or more emulator servers 126 for providing the emulation session corresponding to the emulation request. In some embodiments, the selected broker server 124 can be associated with a set of capable emulator servers, of a plurality of emulator servers 126. The set of capable emulator servers include one or more emulator servers 126 that can operate to provide the one or more resources required to provide the emulation.).
25. With regard to claim 23, Habusha further teaches:
wherein at least one remote service in the designated subset of the plurality of remote services comprises a system-level service[[s]] of the host operating system of the second processing device that persists through reinstallation of the host operating system on the second processing device (Col. 2, lines 28-50, Various hot-plug mechanisms exist. For example, the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) specification provides for hot-plug of PCIe-compatible components into a PCIe slot. A computing system that supports PCIe hot-plug includes hardware support, in the form of PCIe slots capable of accepting a device while the computing system is power on, detecting insertion or removal of a device, sending a signal to the operating system to indicate insertion or removal of a device, and/or providing power to a device when the device has been inserted. In some cases, the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) of the computing system may also need to support hot-plug, for example by being able to dynamically modify power requirements when devices are added or removed. A computing system that supports PCIe hot-plug also includes software support. Specifically, the operating system may be configured with procedures for adding or removing a hot-plugged device, including, for example, conducting device discovery and configuring a new device. Configuration of the new device can include assigning memory addresses to the new device and possibly reorganizing memory assigned to other devices; Examiner’s Note: The computing system’s operating persists even when hot-plugged devices are added and some reconfiguration might be done.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Molleri Jr. and Millin with the teachings of Habusha wherein the one or more remote services attached to the second processing device comprise system-level services of the host operating system of the second processing device that persist through reinstallation of the host operating system on the second processing device. Together, Molleri Jr. and Millin teach of a first processing device provisioning services to the second processing device through an emulation module. Additionally, Habusha teaches of the host operating system persisting even when there is reinstallation of the host processing system. Habusha teaches that the system might be reconfigured when a hot-plugged device is added or removed. The system does not need to be powered off or fundamentally changed to support this process (Col. 2, lines 28-50.) This ensures the system continues to function despite any changes.
26. Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morelli Jr. et al. US 9965303 B2 and Millin et al. US 20190327179 A1, as applied in claim 1, in further view of Daga et al. US 20190347956 A1.
27. With regard to claim 8, Morelli Jr. and Millin teach the apparatus of claim 1 but fail to explicitly teach wherein the first processing device further comprises a physical shut-off switch configured to turn off the first processing device independent of the second processing device.
However, in analogous art, Daga further teaches:
wherein the first processing device further comprises a physical shut-off switch configured to turn off the first processing device independent of the second processing device (Fig. 7; [0190] The device further comprises a physical switch module and a microphone module (not shown in the figure). The physical switch module is operated to power on and off the device, and also to change a mode of operation of the device; Examiner’s Note: In this example, the first processing device is a game monitoring device, and the second processing devices are nearby computing devices. The game monitoring device has a physical switch to power on and off the device. The game monitoring device is distinct from the nearby computing devices.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Morelli Jr. and Millin with the teachings of Daga wherein the first processing device further comprises a physical shut-off switch configured to turn off the first processing device independent of the second processing device so that the devices can be turned off distinctly from one another, as discussed in Daga ([0190]).
28. Claims 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morelli Jr. et al. US 9965303 B2; Millin et al. US 20190327179 A1; and Daga et al. US 20190347956 A1, as applied in claim 8, in further view of Gupta et al. US 20100070784 A1.
29. With regard to claim 9, Daga teaches the apparatus of claim 8 but fails to explicitly teach wherein the first processing device is further configured to perform the steps of: detecting one or more designated patterns of activity of the one or more emulation modules; and responsive to detecting the one or more designated patterns of activity, providing a notification to the second computing device recommending actuation of the physical shut-off switch of the first processing device.
However, in analogous art, Gupta further teaches:
wherein the first processing device ([0006] The host system) is further configured to perform the steps of:
detecting one or more designated patterns of activity of the one or more emulation modules ([0006] The method includes recommending host system power-on when there is a host system whose utilization is above a target utilization, and recommending host system power-off when there is a host system whose utilization is below the target utilization; Examiner’s Note: The utilization (patterns of activity) is monitored to determine if a host system should power off.); and
responsive to detecting the one or more designated patterns of activity, providing a notification to the second computing device recommending actuation of the physical shut-off switch of the first processing device ([0006] The method includes recommending host system power-on when there is a host system whose utilization is above a target utilization, and recommending host system power-off when there is a host system whose utilization is below the target utilization. Recommending host system power-on includes calculating impact of powering on a standby host system with respect to reducing the number of highly-utilized host systems in the server cluster; [0012] Server cluster virtualization management software 21 includes user interface 26 and is in data communication with each of host systems 11-19. User interface 26 facilitates data communication with server cluster virtualization management software 21 to enable a user to control operations of server cluster 20, as is discussed more fully below; Examiner’s Note: The server clusters are in communication with each other. Based on activity of a host system, it could be recommended that the host be shut-off if the utilization is lower than a target utilization.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Morelli Jr., Millin, and Daga with the teachings of Gupta to detect one or more designated patterns of activity of the one or more emulation modules and responsive to detecting the one or more designated patterns of activity, providing a notification to the second computing device recommending actuation of the physical shut-off switch of the first processing device. This allows for host systems that are operating under a utilization threshold to be powered off, as discussed in Gupta ([0011]).
30. With regard to claim 10, Gupta further teaches:
wherein the first processing device ([0006] The host system) is further configured to perform the steps of:
detecting one or more designated patterns of activity of the one or more emulation modules ([0006] The method includes recommending host system power-on when there is a host system whose utilization is above a target utilization, and recommending host system power-off when there is a host system whose utilization is below the target utilization; Examiner’s Note: The utilization (patterns of activity) is monitored to determine if a host system should power off.); and
responsive to detecting a first one of the one or more designated patterns of activity, providing a notification to the second computing device recommending actuation of the physical shut-off switch of the first processing device ([0006] The method includes recommending host system power-on when there is a host system whose utilization is above a target utilization, and recommending host system power-off when there is a host system whose utilization is below the target utilization. Recommending host system power-on includes calculating impact of powering on a standby host system with respect to reducing the number of highly-utilized host systems in the server cluster; [0012] Server cluster virtualization management software 21 includes user interface 26 and is in data communication with each of host systems 11-19. User interface 26 facilitates data communication with server cluster virtualization management software 21 to enable a user to control operations of server cluster 20, as is discussed more fully below; Examiner’s Note: The server clusters are in communication with each other. Based on activity of a host system, it could be recommended that the host be shut-off if the utilization is lower than a target utilization.); and
responsive to detecting a second one of the one or more designated patterns of activity, initiating an automatic shut-off of the first processing device ([0018]; [0030]; Examiner’s Note: The host systems can be put in an automatic mode that powers off the host system without the need for user confirmation. This is done when more critical resources are being considered.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Morelli Jr., Millin, and Daga with the teachings of Gupta to detect one or more designated patterns of activity of the one or more emulation modules; responsive to detecting the one or more designated patterns of activity, providing a notification to the second computing device recommending actuation of the physical shut-off switch of the first processing device; and responsive to detecting a second one of the one or more designated patterns of activity, initiating an automatic shut-off of the first processing device. By including an automatic mode, the system can bypass user confirmation and power off the host system when needed during critical times, as discussed in Gupta ([0018]; [0030]).
Conclusion
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/AN-AN NGOC NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2195
/Aimee Li/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2195
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