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 2-5 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D'Agostino et al., US
20050239518 A1, ("D'Agostino"; Relied upon in the Previous Action) in view of Cahill-O'Brien et
al., US 20140281624 A1, ("Cahill-O'Brien")..
Regarding claim 1, D’Agostino teaches a method for dynamically programming a hardware programmable state machine in a device comprising a plurality of circuit blocks (Fig.12, elements 1202-1238), and a management unit circuit (Fig. 12, element 1202 "processor"; See also [0052]) communicatively coupled with the plurality of circuit blocks and configured to implement the hardware programmable state machine defined by, an application specific power profile (Fig. 2. Element 200 "State Machine", Comprising Element 210 "Power Management Component" and Element 220 "Configuration Bank"; See also [0043] "configuration stored therein can be generated upon request, uploaded via a user, an API, and/or an application. Such configuration can be default, user defined, application generated and/or intelligently created and dynamically modified." Emphasis added.) , the method comprising:
receiving proqramminq instructions confiqured to cause the manaqement unit circuit to implement the application specific power profile from among a plurality of application specific power profiles corresponding to a plurality of different use cases ([0043] "configuration stored therein can be generated upon request, uploaded via a user, an API, and/or an application. Such configuration can be default, user defined, application generated and/or intelligently created and dynamically modified." Emphasis added; i.e. programming the state machine ([0055] "When the state machine requires less
power (e.g., powered down or not fully utilized), a power management system can be invoked to manage the state machine's power."; See also [0057] " upon receiving a notification that power is required, the state machine can transition to a wake state 650 and then to the full power state 610 From the off state 640, the state machine can transition back to the full power state or a low power state. In either scenario, the state machine can first transition to the wake state 650. From there, the state machine can transition to the lower power state 630 when only partial power is desired (e.g., to power the CPU and network radio) or to the full power state 610 when full power is desired."));
generating programming instructions configured to cause the management unit circuit to program the hardware programmable state machine to implement the application specific power profile ([0066] "the invention has been described above in the general context of computer-executable instructions of a computer program that runs on a computer and/or computers, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention also can be implemented in combination with other program modules.
Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks and/or implement particular abstract data types."). D 'Agostino does not teach based on the programming instructions, causing a DC-to-DC converter to switch from supplying a first voltage to supplying a second voltage to at least one of the plurality of circuit blocks.
D 'Agostino goes on to teach the lowering or removal of power from inactive components so as to
save power in the system. (D'Agostino [0032])
Cahill-O 'Brien teaches based on the programming instructions, causing a DC-to-DC converter to switch from supplying a first voltage to supplying a second voltage to at least one of the plurality of circuit blocks ([0016] "state machine 300 may recognize a plurality of states, modes or conditions, and move between the various states according changes in events the state machine may assist in the management of the node 110, and may to even control or manage aspects of the node when the processor is in either awake or sleep states. The overall power consumption of the node 110 is less with the state machine 300 (and more generally ") causing a DC-to-DC converter to switch from supplying a first voltage to supplying a second voltage to at least one of the plurality of circuit blocks. ([0020] "As the output voltage of the battery recovers, it will eventually provide a voltage greater than the programmed output voltage of the buck-boost 306. At that time, the max 308 may indicate this event to the state machine 300 (or other controlling device), and the buck-boost device 306 may be turned off. This will allow the battery to provide power to devices, as needed, in a more efficient manner than possible by the buck-boost device 306." See also [0019] "A buck-boost device may receive power from the battery 212 and provide regulated power at one or more programmable voltage levels to one or more devices. In one example, the buck-boost 306 may be programmed to provide current at 3 volts to the radio 210, such as during periods of RF transmission.)
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the claimed
invention was filed to combine the teaching of Cahill-O 'Brien with D 'Agostino as both references are
directed to controlling power in computing systems. Moreover, Cahill-O 'Brien improves on D'Agostino's
teaching of removing power from components during a power saving state (D'Agostino [0032]) by
teaching a technique which further reduces power consumption by selecting between direct and down
regulated power sources, disabling a buck converter in cases where it is not necessary to down regulate.
([0019] - [0020]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 11/5/25 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argued that Cahill-O’Brien does not teach “based on the programming instructions, causing a DC-to-DC converter to switch from supplying a first voltage to supplying a second voltage to at least one of the plurality of circuit block” because Cahill-O’Brien teaches operating the buck-boost in a boost mode, a buck mode, or off depending on the voltage delivered by the battery. Examiner respectfully disagrees because while it is true that the buck-boost operates in different modes, it also is able to supply first and second voltages based on programming ([0019] "A buck-boost device may receive power from the battery 212 and provide regulated power at one or more programmable voltage levels to one or more devices. In one example, the buck-boost 306 may be programmed to provide current at 3 volts to the radio 210, such as during periods of RF transmission.”).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jaweed A Abbaszadeh whose telephone number is (571)270-1640. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m..
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/JAWEED A ABBASZADEH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2176