DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to claims filed on 06/18/2026.
Claims 1, 3-13, 19-20, 22, 25, 26 are pending.
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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12-13 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The Examiner has identified the features of “sends a keep alive notification to the power manager to inhibit the power manger from outputting the second output signal until the keep alive message is cleared or the timer expired” of at least claim 12 as not being taught by any single or combination references identified in the prior art.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 22 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.
Claims 1, 3-4, 10, 19, 22, and 25-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zimmer et al. Pub. No. US 2005/0268078 A1 (hereinafter Zimmer) in view of Pandya et al. Patent No. US 9,872,254 B2 (hereinafter Pandya) in view of Millsap et al. US 6,484,082 B1 (hereinafter Millsap).
With regard to claim 1, Zimmer teaches a vehicle control system comprising one or more controllers ([0016], Computer system 100 may be implemented to support virtual machine environment which may include virtual machine monitor (VMM) 125 and computer system platform 110), the vehicle control system comprising a global power state (Fig. 2, VMM Power Management Policy 210; [0024], The VMM 125 may use the system power savings settings as a global power management policy or boundary … The power management policy may incorporate system power savings settings as configured for the computer system 100) and comprising at least two virtual machines being hosted on the one or more controllers (Fig. 1, Virtual Machines 132, 142, 152; [0019], The VMM 125 may present abstraction of one or more VMs 132, 142, 152) wherein each virtual machine has a respective local power state (Fig. 2, Power State info 211, 212, 213; [0022], Each of the VMs 132, 142, 152 may have its own local power management policy), wherein the one or more controllers collectively comprise:
at least one electric processor ([0016], The processor 112 may be any type of processor (e.g., a microprocessor, digital signal processor, microcontroller, or the like) capable of executing software instructions) having an electrical input for receiving a vehicle parameter signal ([0033], the power management policy 210 may be accessed to determine the global power management policy and current power state information of the VMs in the system); and
at least one memory device electrically coupled to the at least one electronic processor having instructions stored therein ([0018], The memory 114 may store instructions or data for performing the operations associated with various embodiments described herein),
wherein the at least one electronic processor is configured to access the at least one memory device and execute the instructions thereon so as to ([0017], The processor may include microcode, programmable logic or hard-coded logic for performing operations associated with various embodiments described herein):
…
determine a respective commanded local power state for each virtual machine ([0024], FIG. 2, is a block diagram that illustrates an example of a power management policy to handle power management policy to handle power management commands from the virtual machines, in accordance with one embodiment. To facilitate the conflicting power management commands from the different VMs 132, 142, 152, the VMM 125 may retain control over the hardware resources. For one embodiment, the VMM 125 may trap the power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, 152 and handle the commands based on a power management policy 210) in dependence on the requested global power state ([0024], The VMM 125 may use the system power savings settings as a global power management policy or boundary while it handles the power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, 152);
update a respective current local power state of each virtual machine to the respective commanded local power state therefor ([0028], For one embodiment, responsive to the power management commands from a VM, the VMM 125 may make all necessary modification to the hardware resources to reduce the power consumption of the computer system 100. For example, when the VMM 125 traps the power management commands from the VM 132 and the VMM 125 recognizes that the other VMs 142, 152 are already in the low power state as indicated by their respective power state information 212, 213, the VMM 125 may proceed to place the processor 110 into a low power consumption state … Thus, depending on how the power management policy 210 is implemented and the current operating state of each of the VMs 132, 142, 152, the VMM 125 may perform various combinations of operations to accommodate the power management commands from each of the VMs 132, 142, and 152), …; and
Zimmer reasonably teaches a global power management policy for handling power management commands from the plurality of virtual machines. However, Zimmer may not teach that the control system and parameter signals are a vehicle control system and a vehicle parameter signals or a global power state is associated with a vehicle parameter signal and updated to reflect the current global power state.
Pandya teaches a vehicle control system (Col. 3, lines 17-18, FIG. 1 illustrates an example block topology for a vehicle based computing system 1 (VCS) for a vehicle 41. ) … vehicle parameter signal (FIG. 5, Key off 303, Key On 311; Col. 9, lines 9-13, Upon the vehicle being on and providing full power 401 to the cellular communication module, the vehicle computer system or controller area network (CAN) bus may determine if the ignition is of 403. If the ignition is not off, the vehicle will stay in full power mode.)
determine a requested global power state based on the vehicle parameter signal (Col. 9, lines 7-12, Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a flow chart for entering and exiting different sleep stages of a cellular communication module. Upon the vehicle being on and providing full power 401 to the cellular communication module, the vehicle computer system or controller area network (CAN) may determine if the ignition is off 403 … upon turning off the vehicle, the cellular communication module will receive a message and enter into extended mode 405);
…
update a respective current local power state of each virtual machine [vehicle module] to the respective commanded local power state therefor (Col. 7, lines 4-9, The vehicle may be operating at full power 301 and all modules and devices may be active, including the cellular communication module. Upon the vehicle trigger a key off 303, the vehicle will exit the full power state and the battery may no longer supply current to all modules.), wherein if a keep alive message [extended power state] is active, the keep alive message [extended power state] indicating that a first virtual machine [vehicle module] of the at least two virtual machines [vehicle modules] demands power (Col. 5, lines 54-56, FIGS. 2a-d show illustrative examples of vehicle-based communication modules that provide communication to a remote network; Col. 7, lines 9-10, However, the cellular communication module 305 may enter into an extended power mode for a certain time period), the current local power state for the first virtual machine [vehicle module] is updated only once the keep alive message [extended power state] is cleared or a timer, started in response to receiving the keep alive message [extended power state], has expired (Col. 7, lines 28-30, Upon a threshold period time expiring in which the extended mode is active, the cellular modem may enter into a low-power mode 307)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pandya with the teachings of Zimmer in order to provide a system that teaches receiving a global power state and propagating the power state in order to reflect the received current global power state. The motivation for applying Pandya teaching with Zimmer teaching is to provide a system that allows for the vehicle modules of Pandya executing upon the virtual machines of Zimmer such that allows a global power state to be identified and applied in a distributed manner across vehicle modules in a system. As such, implementing determination and application of global power state changes gains the expected result of improving stability by using known control techniques of synchronizing the local power state of each module in line with the global power state of the system. Zimmer and Pandya are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Pandya with Zimmer to teach the claimed invention in order to provide a system that ensures consistent transitions between power states by determining a global power state, distributing the power state, and synchronizing the global power state improving system stability and integrity.
Zimmer reasonably teaches a handling of power management commands for the plurality of virtual machines (See Zimmer, FIG. 2). Pandya reasonably teaches power state transitioning upon expiration of a timer (See Pandya, FIG. 4). However, the combination does not explicitly teach keep alive messaging.
Millsap teaches keep alive message (Col. 6, In general, activation of a virtual network involves … sending periodic messages to keep the ECUs in the virtual network active until the control task is complete; Col. 7, the master ECU broadcasts a virtual network message (VNM) over the vehicle bus 12, as indicated at block 34. This VNM is used to identify the virtual network to be activated and, thus, the ECUs that should stay in the activated state to carry out the control task. All other ECUs not performing some other control task return to their sleep state. The master ECU then starts a countdown timer that can be set to, for example, three seconds. This is shown at block 36. Then at block 38, a check is made to determine if the control task has been completed. If not, then the process moves to block 40 where the timer is checked; Col. 8, a check is made to determine if a follow-up VNM has been received … If no VNM has been received the timer is checked at block 76 to determine whether it has expired. If the timer has expired, then the virtual network is no longer active and the process 62 to determine the appropriate ECU state of operation)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Millsap with the teachings of Zimmer and Pandya in order to provide a system that teaches keep alive power coordinating mechanism. The motivation for applying Millsap teaching with Zimmer and Pandya teaching is to provide a system that allows for the synchronization of shutdown of arbitrary vehicle services in conjunction with low power vehicle state, such that enables power savings (Millsap, Col. 2). Zimmer and Pandya and Millsap are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Millsap with Zimmer and Pandya to teach the claimed invention in order to provide keep alive power vehicle service signaling.
With regard to claim 3, Zimmer teaches wherein the at least one electronic processor is configured to output a first output signal to the at least two virtual machines to update the respective current local power state of each virtual machine to the respective commanded local power state therefor ([0025], The power management policy 210 may also incorporate power state information 211, 212, and 2113 of the VMs 132, 142, and 152. The power state information of a VM may include information that describes the current operating state of the VM … The VMM 125 may use the power state information 211, 212, and 213 to help determine the appropriate response to power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, and 152); and output a second output signal to update the current global power state of the vehicle control system to the requested global power state ([0024], The power management policy 210 may incorporate system power savings settings as configured for the computer system 100. For example, the system power savings settings may indicate that when the computer system 100 is operating with a DC power source, the processor 112 is to operate at a lower speed the hard drive is to spin down after a shorter length of time, etc. The VMM 125 may use the system power savings settings as a global power management or boundary).
With regard to claim 4, Zimmer teaches wherein the at least one electronic processor comprises a virtual machine manager configured to output the first output signal ([0024], To facilitate the conflicting power management commands from the different VMs 132, 142, 152, the VMM 125 may retain control over the hardware resources. For one embodiment, the VMM 125 may trap the power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, 152 and handle the commands based on a power management policy 210), and
However, the combination does not explicitly teach that the vehicle parameter signal is a state of a controller area network (CAN) bus.
Pandya teaches wherein the vehicle parameter signal is a state of a controller area network (CAN) bus (Col. 6, lines 10-18, The microprocessor is also in communication with a vehicle data bus that provides access to various vehicle modules … Non-limiting examples of a vehicle data bus includes SAE J1860 bus, a CAN bus, a GMLAN bus, and any other vehicle data buses known in the art. For illustration purposes only, FIGS. 2a-2d are represented as using a CAN bus).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pandya with the teachings of Zimmer and Millsap in order to provide a system that teaches a vehicle parameter signal as a state of the controller area network (CAN) bus. The motivation for applying Pandya teaching with Zimmer and Millsap teaching is to provide a system that allows for the microprocessor of a vehicle to communicate with vehicle modules through the controller area network bus protocol (Pandya, Col. 6). Zimmer, Millsap, and Pandya are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Pandya with Zimmer and Millsap to teach the claimed invention in order to provide an efficient vehicle communication protocol.
With regard to claim 10, Zimmer teaches wherein the at least one electronic processor comprises a hypervisor ([0016], Computer system 100 may be implemented to support a virtual machine environment which may be implemented to support a virtual machine environment which may include virtual machine monitor (VMM)), wherein the hypervisor comprises a power management service ([0030], FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of using a transfer monitor to trap power management commands from the VMs, in accordance with one embodiment) and wherein the power management service is configured to receive the vehicle parameter signal ([0030], The power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, 152 may be in the form of system management interrupts (SMI). The SMI transfer monitor (STM) 310 may be used to trap these SMIs from the VMs 132, 142, 152 … The STM 310 may also route the SMIs to appropriate emulation service routine stored in the system management mode (SMM) memory 305. For the example, the SMM 305 may include a service routine or program that emulates changing the power management registers (e.g., model specific registers (MSRs) of the processor 112).
With regard to claim 19, Zimmer teaches wherein the respective commanded local power state of each of the at least two virtual machines is one of the following: active, shut-down, or suspended ([0025], For another embodiment, the power management policy 210 may also incorporate power state information 211, 212, and 213 of the VMs 132, 142, and 152. The power state information of a VM may include information that describes a current operating state of the VM. For example, the power state information may indicate that the VM 132 is in deep sleep state (shut-down), the power state information 212 may indicate that the VM 142 is in a normal on state (active), and the power state information 213 may indicate that the VM 152 is in a standby state (suspended)), … and wherein the respective commanded local power states of the at least two virtual machines differ across the different global power states ([0022], VMs 132, 142, 152 may have its own local power management policy. For example, when using a DC power source, the VM 132 may decide to go from a “normal on” state to a sleep state to save power consumed by the processor 112)
However, Zimmer does not explicitly teach global power state selected from a group including normal, low power, listen, and sleep.
Pandya teaches wherein the request global power state is selected from a group of different global power states including normal, low power, listen, and sleep (Fig. 3A, Full power, Extended Mode, Low Power, Sleep 1, Sleep 2, Deep Sleep; Col. 6, lines 64-66, FIG. 3A illustrates an example of the different stages that the cellular communication module based on the power and power off cycles of a vehicle)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pandya with the teachings of Zimmer and Millsap in order to provide a system that teaches the plurality of global power states that can be applied to the vehicle control system. The motivation for applying Pandya teaching with Zimmer and Millsap teaching is to provide a system that allows for adaptive power management through a plurality of power states. Such power states allow for selectively enabling essential functionality and disabling nonessential functionality in order to provide power in a vehicle system depending on the operational context (Pandya, Col. 9). Zimmer, Millsap, and Pandya are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Pandya with Zimmer and Millsap to teach the claimed invention in order to provide adaptive power management through the use of a plurality of global power states.
With regard to claim 22, Zimmer teaches a method of changing a global power state of a vehicle control system ([0008], A method … for handling power management in virtual machine environments are described. Power management operations performed by the guest operating system in the multiple virtual machines may be emulated a virtual machine monitor (VMM)) comprising one or more controllers ([0016], Computer system 100 may be implemented to support virtual machine environment which may include virtual machine monitor (VMM) 125 and computer system platform 110) and at least two virtual machines hosted on one of the one or more controllers wherein each virtual machine (Fig. 1, Virtual Machines 132, 142, 152; [0019], The VMM 125 may present abstraction of one or more VMs 132, 142, 152) has a local power state (Fig. 2, Power State info 211, 212, 213; [0022], Each of the VMs 132, 142, 152 may have its own local power management policy), the method comprising:
receiving a vehicle parameter signal indicative of a requested global power state of the vehicle control system ([0033], At block 404, the power management policy 210 may be accessed to determine the global power management policy and current power state information of the VMs in the system);
determining, based on the received vehicle parameter signal, a respective commanded local power state for each virtual machine ([0024], FIG. 2, is a block diagram that illustrates an example of a power management policy to handle power management policy to handle power management commands from the virtual machines, in accordance with one embodiment. To facilitate the conflicting power management commands from the different VMs 132, 142, 152, the VMM 125 may retain control over the hardware resources. For one embodiment, the VMM 125 may trap the power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, 152 and handle the commands based on a power management policy 210);
…, updating a current local power state of each virtual machine of the respective commanded local power state therefor ([0028], For one embodiment, responsive to the power management commands from a VM, the VMM 125 may make all necessary modification to the hardware resources to reduce the power consumption of the computer system 100. For example, when the VMM 125 traps the power management commands from the VM 132 and the VMM 125 recognizes that the other VMs 142, 152 are already in the low power state as indicated by their respective power state information 212, 213, the VMM 125 may proceed to place the processor 110 into a low power consumption state … Thus, depending on how the power management policy 210 is implemented and the current operating state of each of the VMs 132, 142, 152, the VMM 125 may perform various combinations of operations to accommodate the power management commands from each of the VMs 132, 142, and 152); and
However, Zimmer may not teach that the control system and parameter signals are a vehicle control system and a vehicle parameter signals.
Pandya teaches a vehicle control system (Col. 3, lines 17-18, FIG. 1 illustrates an example block topology for a vehicle based computing system 1 (VCS) for a vehicle 41. ) … vehicle parameter signal (FIG. 5, Key off 303, Key On 311; Col. 9, lines 9-13, Upon the vehicle being on and providing full power 401 to the cellular communication module, the vehicle computer system or controller area network (CAN) bus may determine if the ignition is of 403. If the ignition is not off, the vehicle will stay in full power mode.)
receiving a keep alive message [extended power state] from a first virtual machine [vehicle module] of the at least two virtual machines [vehicle modules], the keep alive message [extended power state indicating that the first virtual machine [vehicle module] demands power (Col. 5, lines 54-56, FIGS. 2a-d show illustrative examples of vehicle-based communication modules that provide communication to a remote network; Col. 7, lines 9-10, However, the cellular communication module 305 may enter into an extended power mode for a certain time period);
incrementing a counter and starting a timer in response to receiving the keep alive message [extended power state] (Col. 7, lines 11-14, The extended mode may power the cellular radio with data channels open, have the cellular micro on and also power a real time clock (RTC) and controller area network wakeup circuit. Extended power mode may last for a specific time period)
responsive to determining that the keep alive message has been cleared or the timer has expired (Col. 7, lines 28-30, Upon a threshold period time expiring in which the extended mode is active, the cellular modem may enter into a low-power mode 307)
updating a current global power state of the vehicle control system to the requested global power state once each respective current local power state has been updated (Fig. 3A, 301 Full Power transitions to 305 Extended Mode from 303 Key off signal event; Col. 7, lines 2-9, In the illustrative embodiment of FIG. 3A, the vehicle may be a battery electric vehicle. The vehicle may be operating at full power 301 and all modules and devices may be active including the cellular communication module. Upon the vehicle trigger a key off 303, the vehicle will exit the full power state and the battery may no longer supply current to all the modules (Examiner notes: the extended mode global power state suspends all local modules)
Rationale to claim 1 applied here.
However, the combination does not explicitly teach keep alive messaging
Millsap teaches keep alive message (Col. 6, In general, activation of a virtual network involves … sending periodic messages to keep the ECUs in the virtual network active until the control task is complete; Col. 7, the master ECU broadcasts a virtual network message (VNM) over the vehicle bus 12, as indicated at block 34. This VNM is used to identify the virtual network to be activated and, thus, the ECUs that should stay in the activated state to carry out the control task. All other ECUs not performing some other control task return to their sleep state. The master ECU then starts a countdown timer that can be set to, for example, three seconds. This is shown at block 36. Then at block 38, a check is made to determine if the control task has been completed. If not, then the process moves to block 40 where the timer is checked; Col. 8, a check is made to determine if a follow-up VNM has been received … If no VNM has been received the timer is checked at block 76 to determine whether it has expired. If the timer has expired, then the virtual network is no longer active and the process 62 to determine the appropriate ECU state of operation)
Examiner notes: It would be obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to recognize that claim 22 is being substantially recited again as a method for the system of claim 1.
With regard to claim 25, Zimmer teaches a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instruction that, when executed by a processor, cause performance of the method of Claim 22 ([0012], For example, in some embodiments, the present invention may be provided as a computer program product or software which may include a machine or computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which may be used to program a computer (or other electronic devices) to perform a process according to the present invention. In other embodiments, steps of the present invention might be performed by specific hardware components that contain hardwired logic for performing the steps, or by any combination of programmed computer components and custom hardware components).
With regard to claim 26, Pandya teaches the vehicle control system as claimed in Claim 1 comprised in a vehicle (Col. 3, lines 17-18, FIG. 1 illustrates an example block topology for a vehicle based computing system 1 (VCS) for a vehicle 41.).
Rationale to claim 1 applied here.
Claims 5 and 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zimmer in view of Pandya in view of Millsap as applied to claim 1 and 10 above, and further in view of Dong et al. Pub. No. US 2021/0225096 A1 (hereinafter Dong).
With regard to claim 5, Dong teaches wherein the at least one electronic processor comprises a power manager ([0030], In embodiments, to facilitate power management, each of hypervisor 112 and OS of VMs 122-128 may include a power manager 140-146. In embodiments, power managers 140-146 are configured to manage power states of hypervisor 112 and VMs 122-128 in complaint with the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) standard) and the virtual machine manager is configured to notify the power manager when the at least two virtual machines are in the respective commanded local power state ([0048], As illustrated in FIG. 6, for the embodiments, suspend process 610, invoked during power off may include the operations performed at blocks 612-616, whereas resume process 630, invoked during power on, may include the operations performed at 632-636. The operations may be performed by the components of hypervisor 112 and service or user OS of service or user VM 122 or 124 (such as power manager 140-144, device model 162 and so forth)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Zimmer with the teachings of Dong in order to provide a system that teaches the notification of the power manager of the local power states of virtual machines aggregated by the virtual machine manager. The motivation for applying Zimmer teaching with Dong teaching is to provide a system that allows for a particular power state to be identified by the power manager, enabling the power manager to dictate specific power management processes to occur dependent on a given state (Dong, [0049]-[0051]). Dong and Zimmer are analogous art directed towards hypervisor-specific management. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Zimmer with Dong to teach the claimed invention in order to provide a power manager and interactions with notifications of the virtual machine power states.
With regard to claim 11, Zimmer teaches wherein hypervisor comprises ([0017], The computer system platform 110 may include at least one … input/output controller 116):
a virtual machine manager configured to ([0008], Power management operations performed by the guest operating systems in the multiple virtual machines may be emulated by a virtual machine monitor (VMM)): output a first output signal to the at least two virtual machines to update the respective current local power state of each virtual machine to the respective commanded local power state therefor ([0025], The power management policy management 210 may also incorporate power state information 211, 212, and 2113 of the VMs 132, 142, and 152. The power state information of a VM may include information that describes the current operating state of the VM … The VMM 125 may use the power state information 211, 212, and 213 to help determine the appropriate response to power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, and 152); and a power manager configured to output a second output signal to update the current global power state of the vehicle control system to the requested global power state ([0024], The power management policy 210 may incorporate system power savings settings as configured for the computer system 100. For example, the system power savings settings may indicate that when the computer system 100 is operating with a DC power source, the processor 112 is to operate at a lower speed the hard drive is to spin down after a shorter length of time, etc. The VMM 125 may use the system power savings settings as a global power management or boundary);
…
wherein an application of the first virtual machine ([0019], The guest software 138, 148, 158 running on each of the VMs 132, 142, 152 may include a guest OS 134, 144, or 154 and various software applications 136, 146, 156, respectively.) sends the keep alive message [power management command] to the virtual machine manager ([0033], the process may flow to block 406 where the VMM 125 may emulate response to power management commands issued by the VM. The emulation may include executing a service routine in the SMM 305 to update virtual register as viewed by the VM)
However, Zimmer may not explicitly teach the remaining limitations.
Dong teaches wherein the virtual machine manager is configured to notify the power manager when the at least two virtual machines are in the respective commanded local power state ([0048], As illustrated in FIG. 6, for the embodiments, suspend process 610, invoked during power off may include the operations performed at blocks 612-616, whereas resume process 630, invoked during power on, may include the operations performed at 632-636. The operations may be performed by the components of hypervisor 112 and service or user OS of service or user VM 122 or 124 (such as power manager 140-144, device model 162 and so forth))
Rationale to claim 5 applied here.
Zimmer reasonably teaches an exchange of management commands between the plurality of virtual machines and a hypervisor. However, the combination does not explicitly teach wherein the communications comprise a transmitting a keep alive message.
Millsap teaches keep alive message (Col. 6, In general, activation of a virtual network involves … sending periodic messages to keep the ECUs in the virtual network active until the control task is complete).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Millsap with the teachings of Zimmer and Pandya in order to provide a system that teaches keep alive power coordinating mechanism. The motivation for applying Millsap teaching with Zimmer and Pandya teaching is to provide a system that allows for the synchronization of shutdown of arbitrary vehicle services in conjunction with low power vehicle state, such that enables power savings (Millsap, Col. 2). Zimmer and Pandya and Millsap are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Millsap with Zimmer and Pandya to teach the claimed invention in order to provide keep alive power vehicle service signaling.
Claims 6 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over in view of Pandya in view of Millsap Zimmer in view of Dong as applied to claim 5 above, and further in view of Diab Pub. No. US2011/0307716 A1 (hereinafter Diab 716).
With regard to claim 6, Diab 716 teaches wherein the power manager is configured to output the second output signal to transition the vehicle control system to the requested global power state ([0049], Fig. 3 shows system 300 having GCPM 180 (global control policy manager) coupled to virtual machine power managers (VMPM) 310A-B. VMPMs 310A-B are shown coupled to respective VMs 120A-B, each of which are coupled to respective switches 160A-B; [0052] In an embodiment, GCPM 180 can also send configuration instructions (output signal of global power state) to network components (VMs 120A-B) through VMPMs 310A-B)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Diab 716 with the teachings of Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, and Dong in order to provide a system that teaches propagation of the global power state through the system using the power manager. The motivation for applying Diab 716 teaching with Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, and Dong teaching is to provide a system that allows for a centralized, consistent control over power transitions among multiple interconnected components, such that enables reprogramming hardware policies of new components in accordance to the system (Diab 716, [0026]-[0027]). Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, Dong and Diab 716 are analogous art directed towards hypervisor-specific management. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Diab 716 with Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, and Dong to teach the claimed invention in order to provide centralized power management control of components.
With regard to claim 8, Diab 716 teaches wherein the power manager is configured to receive the vehicle parameter signal and to send a global power state signal to the virtual machine manager indicating the requested global power state ([0051], VMPMs 310A-B, in an embodiment, collect and relay ECE information associated with switches 160A-B to VMM 320 in order to improve ECE in system 300. In another embodiment, VMPMs 310A-B collect ECE information from network components and use collected information to generate configuration instructions for VMM 320).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Diab 716 with the teachings of Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, and Dong in order to provide a system that teaches the power manager to receiving and relaying global power information to the virtual machine manager. The motivation for applying Diab 716 teaching with Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, and Dong teaching is to provide a system that allows for the virtual machine manager to become aware of the power state of different components, enabling the virtual machine manager to make improvements to energy consumption of the system (Diab 716, [0050]-[0051]). Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, Dong and Diab 716 are analogous art directed towards hypervisor-specific management. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Diab 716 with Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, and Dong to teach the claimed invention in order to provide virtual machine energy management visibility.
Claims 7 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zimmer in view of Dong in view of Pandya in view of Millsap in view of Diab 716 as applied to claim 6 and 8 above, and further in view of Diab Pub. No. US 2011/0307715 (hereinafter Diab 715).
With regard to claim 7, Diab 716 teaches wherein the power manager is configured to output the second output signal after the virtual machine manager is configured to output the second output signal ([0052] In an embodiment, GCPM 180 can also send configuration instructions (output signal of global power state) to network components (VMs 120A-B) through VMPMs 310A-B)
Diab 715 teaches after the virtual machine manager notifies the power manager that the at least two virtual machines are in the respective local power states ([0073], Virtualized system optimization can benefit from a two way routing/switching of information by embodiments to VMM 110 from VMPM 190 and from VMM 110 to VMPM 190. As noted above, because VMPM 190 and VMM 110 can share access to PPD 395, both components can share information via this central repository. For example, VMPM 190 can gather power characteristics and/or control policy information about network components, and store them in PPD 395 for analysis by VMM 110 to support routing/switching decisions).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Diab 715 with the teachings of Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, Dong, and Diab 716 in order to provide a system that teaches output of second signal after the notification of the power manager of the local power states of virtual machines aggregated by the virtual machine manager. The motivation for applying Diab 715 teaching with Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, Dong, and Diab 716 teaching is to provide a system that allows for a feedback loop related to energy conservation be established between the power manager and virtual machines, enabling iterative continuous improvement of the energy consumption and efficiency in the system (Diab 715, [0059]). Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, Dong, and Diab 716 and Diab 715 are analogous art directed towards energy efficient computing. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Diab 715 with Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, Dong, and Diab 716 to teach the claimed invention in order to provide iterative improvement of energy consumption and efficiency.
With regard to claim 9, Diab 716 teaches … wherein the virtual machine manager is configured to determine the respective commanded local power state of each virtual machine based on the global power state signal ([0083], In the VMPM application example embodiments are described that illustrate systems and methods whereby VMM 710 and VMs 720A-B can receive information from system 700 components. This collect information can also be used by VMPM 715 to generate configuration instructions for VMM 710; [0086], In an embodiment, GCPM 780 can reconfigure control policies 765A-B if they are not optimized for the requirements of virtualized job 730. This reconfiguration of individual physical device control policies (775 A-B) to implement “global” GCP 785 is a feature of an embodiment).
However, the combination does not explicitly teach the remaining limitations.
Diab 715 wherein the virtual machine manager comprises a configuration file that maps the local power state of each virtual machine to the global power state of the vehicle control system (Fig. 7, 730 Generate configuration instructions based on the analyzing of the power information, 740 Send the configuration instructions to the VMM; [0028], As discussed herein, by collecting power information, analyzing the power information, generating configuration instructions and interacting with VMM 110, an embodiment VMPM 190 is designed to address many of these problems)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Diab 715 with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Millsap and Diab 716 in order to provide a system that teaches output of second signal after the notification of the power manager of the local power states of virtual machines aggregated by the virtual machine manager. The motivation for applying Diab 715 teaching with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Millsap and Diab 716 teaching is to provide a system that allows for a feedback loop related to energy conservation be established between the power manager and virtual machines, enabling iterative continuous improvement of the energy consumption and efficiency in the system (Diab 715, [0059]). Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Millsap, Diab 716, and Diab 715 are analogous art directed towards energy efficient computing. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Diab 715 with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Millsap, and Diab 716 to teach the claimed invention in order to provide iterative improvement of energy consumption and efficiency.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zimmer in view of Pandya in view of Millsap as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Watkins et al. Pub. No. US 2005/0075892 A1 (hereinafter Watkins).
With regard to claim 20, Watkins teaches wherein the at least two virtual machines comprise a telematics virtual machine, a software over the air virtual machine, and a diagnostics virtual machine ([0012], Telematics application programs 121 within the physical programming station contain specific functionality to be executed when the programs are active within the telematics units 102 … It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the programs 122 and 124 may be object code programs flashed in to memory in the telematics unit 102, or applets for running on a virtual machine in telematics unit 102, or any other form for controlling the function of telematics unit 102 in the modes described herein).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Watkins with the teachings of Zimmer, Pandya, and Millsap in order to provide a system that teaches a plurality of virtual machines comprising telematic functionality. The motivation for applying Watkins teaching with Zimmer, Pandya, and Millsap teaching is to provide a system that allows for the combination known elements of telematic functionality on a virtual machine and the known elements of power management of virtual machines according to known methods to yield predictable results. Zimmer, Pandya, Millsap, and Watkins are analogous art directed towards power management arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Watkins with Zimmer, Pandya, and Millsap to teach the claimed invention in order to provide power management of telematic virtual machines in a vehicle control system.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/I.A.C./Examiner, Art Unit 2195
/Aimee Li/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2195
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