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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 8-11, and 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Woo et al. US 2018/0267582 A1.
Woo teaches:
1. (Original) A system comprising:
interface circuitry; [Fig. 1]
first programmable circuitry; [Fig. 1 controller 110] and
instructions to cause the first programmable circuitry to:
determine, based on a first signal output by a first sensor [Fig. 1 sensor 114], a first temperature at a first location that is associated with second programmable circuitry; [Fig. 1 component 102]
determine, based on a second signal output by a second sensor [Fig. 1 sensor 116], a second temperature at a second location that is different than the first location; [para. 0029, “The controller 110 may receive a temperature value from a sensor integrated in the system component 102, from an ambient temperature sensor, 116, or from an external component temperature sensor 114.”]
set a first thermal setpoint for the second programmable circuitry in response to the second temperature failing to satisfy a threshold value; [Fig. 3 312, no adjustment to fan control because ambient temperature has not changed by at least threshold ‘X’ or decreased by ‘Y’.] and
set a second thermal setpoint for the second programmable circuitry in response to the second temperature satisfying the threshold value, [Fig. 3 304 and 306, ambient temperature increased by at least X, fan speed control profile adjusted]
wherein the second thermal setpoint is higher than the first thermal setpoint. [Fig. 5 increase in ambient temp increases maximum component temp]
Woo teaches:
2. (Original) The system of claim 1, wherein the first programmable circuitry is to, based on control of a rotational speed of a fan, cause the second programmable circuitry to satisfy: (1) the first thermal setpoint; or (2) the second thermal setpoint. [Fig. 4]
Woo teaches:
8. (Original) An apparatus comprising:
an integrated circuit; [Fig. 1 102 component]
a heatsink thermally coupled to the integrated circuit; [Fig. 1 104]
a fan; [Fig. 1 104]
a first temperature sensor to output a first signal indicative of a temperature of the integrated circuit; [Fig. 1 114]
a second temperature sensor to output a second signal indicative of a temperature ambient to the integrated circuit; [Fig. 1 116] and
processor circuitry [Fig. 1 controller 110] to:
set a first thermal setpoint in response to the ambient temperature exceeding a threshold value plus a gap band temperature value; [Fig. 3 312, no adjustment to fan control because ambient temperature has not changed by at least threshold ‘X’ or decreased by ‘Y’.] and
set a second thermal setpoint in response to the ambient temperature being less than the threshold value minus the gap band temperature value. [Fig. 3 304 and 306, ambient temperature increased by at least X, fan speed control profile adjusted]
Woo teaches:
9. (Original) The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the second temperature sensor is located at a fan intake of a chassis that at least partially encloses the integrated circuit. [para. 0028, “A controller 110 may receive a temperature value from a sensor integrated in the system component 102, from an ambient temperature sensor 116, or from an external component temperature sensor 114.”]
Woo teaches:
10. (Original) The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the second temperature sensor is located outside a chassis that at least partially encloses the integrated circuit. [para. 0028, “A controller 110 may receive a temperature value from a sensor integrated in the system component 102, from an ambient temperature sensor 116, or from an external component temperature sensor 114.”]
Woo teaches:
11. (Original) The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first temperature sensor is part of the processor circuitry. [para. 0029, “The controller 110 may receive a temperature value from a sensor integrated in the system component 102, from an ambient temperature sensor, 116, or from an external component temperature sensor 114.”]
Woo teaches:
15. (Original) A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by first programmable circuitry, cause the first programmable circuitry to:
determine, based on a first signal output by a first sensor, a first temperature at a first location that is associated with second programmable circuitry; [Fig. 2 202]
determine, based on a second signal output by a second sensor, a second temperature at a second location that is different than the first location; [Fig. 3 302]
set a first thermal setpoint for the second programmable circuitry in response to the second temperature failing to satisfy a threshold value; [Fig. 3 312, no adjustment to fan control because ambient temperature has not changed by at least threshold ‘X’ or decreased by ‘Y’.]and
set a second thermal setpoint for the second programmable circuitry in response to the second temperature satisfying the threshold value, wherein the second thermal setpoint is higher than the first thermal setpoint. . [Fig. 3 304 and 306, ambient temperature increased by at least X, fan speed control profile adjusted]
Woo teaches:
16. (Original) The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the first programmable circuitry to, based on control of a rotational speed of a fan, cause the second programmable circuitry to satisfy: (1) the first thermal setpoint; or (2) the second thermal setpoint. [Fig. 2 is a fan controller based on temperature feedback with a set point model using parameter data. The current setpoint Temperature 202 is variable and can be set to either a first or a second temperature setpoint]
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 3-7, 12-14, and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woo et al. US 2018/0267582 A1 in view of Sutherland et al. US 2024/0184342 A1.
Woo does not teach the following limitations, however, Sutherland teaches:
3. (Original) The system of claim 2, wherein the threshold value is a first threshold value, and to control the rotational speed of the fan, the first programmable circuitry is to:
determine a current rotational speed of the fan; [Fig. 2 216 – Fan RPM]
determine a target rotational speed for the fan; [Fig. 2 214 – RPM setpoint]
determine that a difference between the current rotational speed and the target rotational speed satisfies a second threshold value; [Fig. 2 218] and
set the fan to a speed that is approximately the current rotational speed plus the second threshold value. [Fig. 2 fan control 222, PID feedback controller]
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to combine the teachings of Sutherland with those of Woo. A person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings because Sutherland teaches that a thermal setpoint target can be used to drive the RPM setpoint for a fan controller which uses RPM feedback. Sutherland teaches that determining a thermal setpoint dynamically for the cooling system based on real-time conditions can lower power consumption and prolong the life of the component over conventional approaches (See para. 0015-0016).
Sutherland teaches:
4. (Original) The system of claim 3, wherein the first programmable circuitry causes the fan to accelerate more rapidly than the first programmable circuitry causes the fan to decelerate. [para. 0031, “It will be appreciated that a cooling system 106 may employ any number of cooling levels to cool the SOC 108 to specific temperatures and/or at faster or slower cooling rates.”]
Sutherland teaches:
5. (Original) The system of claim 3, wherein the first programmable circuitry is to control the fan based on one or more of ambient sound at the second location or a workload associated with the second programmable circuitry. [para. 0033, “For example, in one or more embodiments described herein, the cooling system 106 may apply a particular cooling level based on which of the hardware blocks 110a-n are drawing the most power or which otherwise command a higher cooling level, even where other hardware blocks are not necessarily drawing as much power as the higher performing hardware block.”]
Sutherland teaches:
6. (Original) The system of claim 2, wherein the first programmable circuitry is to maintain a thermal setpoint when the second temperature does not satisfy a guard-band temperature threshold. [para. 0072, “ambient temperature”]
Sutherland teaches:
7. (Original) The system of claim 1, wherein the second programmable circuity is at least one of:a graphics processor; an artificial intelligence accelerator; an infrastructure processing unit; or a network processor. [Fig. 1 108]
Woo does not teach the following limitations, however, Sutherland teaches:
12. (Original) The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor circuitry is to control a speed of the fan to maintain the first thermal setpoint or the second thermal setpoint. [Fig. 2 first and second setpoints mapped above; para. 0049, “In this example, the current temperature 202 may refer to a current temperature (e.g., recently obtained temperature metric) reflective of a determined temperature of the SOC 108. In one or more embodiments, the current temperature 202 refers to a current temperature setting (e.g., a recently determined temperature setpoint) of the SOC 108, which may be based on one or more previously performed iterations of the workflow 200.” (Emphasis added.)]
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Sutherland teaches:
13. (Original) The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first signal is carried by the integrated circuit to the processor circuitry. [Fig. 2]
Sutherland teaches:
14. (Original) The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor circuity is at least one of a graphics processor; an artificial intelligence accelerator; an infrastructure processing unit; or a network processor. [Fig. 1 108 – SOC]
Sutherland teaches:
17. (Original) The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the threshold value is a first threshold value, and to control the rotational speed of the fan, the instructions are to cause the first programmable circuitry is to:
determine a current rotational speed of the fan; [Fig. 2 FAN RPM 216 feedback]
determine a target rotational speed for the fan; [Fig. 2 RPM setpoint 214]
determine that a difference between the current rotational speed and the target rotational speed satisfies a second threshold value; [Fig. 2 difference 218] and
set the fan to a speed that is approximately the current rotational speed plus the second threshold value. [Fig. 2 RPM offset 220]
Sutherland teaches:
18. (Original) The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the first programmable circuitry to causes the fan to accelerate more rapidly than the first programmable circuitry causes the fan to decelerate. [Fig. 1 108]
Sutherland teaches:
19. (Original) The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the first programmable circuitry to control the fan based on one or more of ambient sound at the second location or a workload associated with the second programmable circuitry. [para. 0033, “For example, in one or more embodiments described herein, the cooling system 106 may apply a particular cooling level based on which of the hardware blocks 110a-n are drawing the most power or which otherwise command a higher cooling level, even where other hardware blocks are not necessarily drawing as much power as the higher performing hardware block.”]
Sutherland teaches:
20. (Original) The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the first programmable circuitry is to maintain a thermal setpoint when the second temperature does not satisfy a guard-band temperature threshold. [Fig. 2; this limitation recited maintaining the current target setpoint temperature when the triggering condition HAS NOT been met, i.e. maintain current settings. Fig. 2 discloses a temperature feedback controller for a cooling fan which will maintain current setpoints when the delta of both RPM and temperature is non triggering.]
Conclusion
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/GARY COLLINS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2115
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