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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s remarks regarding the citation of Shoemaker have been considered. A digit was copied incorrectly from the document number of the prior art, resulting in a typographical error in the citation. This has been remedied: what was previously cited as “US 20120249419 A1 (Shoemaker)” has been corrected to “US 20120249219 A1 (Shoemaker)”. The Examiner believes that each instance of this error has been corrected. If any instance remains, the Applicant may continue under the assumption that the Examiner is still referring to Shoemaker, not Shoemaker, as any remaining instances referring to Shoemaker are unintentional. The rejections are therefore the same, the only amendment being to the document number of the prior art used. This is a 2nd action Non-Final.
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.
Claim(s) 1 and 3-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 20120249219 A1 (Shoemaker).
Regarding claim 1: Shoemaker teaches a system comprising: a processor (control circuit 270); a first thermal sensor positioned at a first portion of the processor (thermal sensor 260); a second thermal sensor positioned at a second portion of the processor (thermal sensor 265); and a system manager (management logic 230), the system manager configured to: obtain a first temperature measurement from the first thermal sensor and a second temperature measurement from the second thermal sensor (“Management logic 230 uses the temperature difference information from control circuit 270”, Paragraph [0031]); estimate, using one or more adjustable parameters, a temperature of a thermal hotspot on the processor based on the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement (“to determine an operational temperature value”, Paragraph [0031]); and adjust one or more settings of the processor based on the estimated temperature of the thermal hotspot (“management logic 230 may increase the refresh rate for memory array 235”, Paragraph [0031]).
Regarding claim 3: Shoemaker teaches the system of claim 1 (see above), but does not directly teach that the estimated temperature of the thermal hotspot is higher than the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement.
However, since the estimated temperature is based on the first and second temperatures, this is regarded as an intended result and therefore, is not given patentable weight.
Regarding claim 4: Shoemaker teaches the system of claim 1 (see above), but does not directly teach that the thermal hotspot is located at a different portion of the processor from where the first thermal sensor and the second thermal sensor are disposed.
However, with the location of the hotspot originally unknown, this is regarded as an intended result and therefore, is not given patentable weight.
Regarding claims 5 and 8: Shoemaker teaches the system of claim 1 (see above), wherein the system manager is further configured to: expose a user interface for adjusting the one or more adjustable parameters used to estimate the thermal hotspot (display device 450); receive, via the user interface, user input to adjust the one or more adjustable parameters (alphanumeric input device 460); and save the adjusted parameters for subsequent use to estimate temperatures of thermal hotspots on the processor (static storage device 430; data storage device 440; Paragraph [0044]: the input is communicated and executed, which would not be possible if it were not first saved).
Regarding claim 6: Shoemaker teaches the system of claim 1 (see above), wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise at least one of a term, weight, degree, constant, or value of a thermal management algorithm (“the refresh rate of memory array 235 may be adjusted by management logic 230”, Paragraph [0026]).
Regarding claim 7: Shoemaker teaches the system of claim 1 (see above), wherein the one or more adjustable parameters are adjustable by: adding or removing one or more gain terms from the parameters; adjusting one or more deltas to maintain between the first thermal sensor and the second thermal sensor; adjusting a slope associated with estimating temperatures of thermal hotspot on the processor based on temperature measurements produced by the first thermal sensor and the second thermal sensor; adjusting a presence or absence of one or more filters in the parameters; or adjusting parameters of the one or more filters (“management logic 230 may increase the refresh rate for memory array 235”, Paragraph [0031]).
Regarding claim 9: Shoemaker teaches the system of claim 1 (see above), wherein the system manager is configured to estimate the temperature of the thermal hotspot at a first interval of time using a first set of parameters, and wherein the system manager is configured to estimate an additional temperature of the thermal hotspot at a second interval of time using a second set of parameters, the second set of parameters having been adjusted from the first set of parameters (Paragraph [0031]: “Management logic 230 may combine the temperature difference information with the temperature information from thermal sensor 240 to determine an operational temperature value”, the use of a temperature difference requires that a first temperature be taken at a first interval of time with a first set of parameters. The result is used to modify further measurements).
Regarding claim 10: Shoemaker teaches the system of claim 1 (see above), wherein the system manager is configured to predict the temperature of the thermal hotspot by: determining a temperature delta between the first temperature measurement and the second temperature measurement (Paragraph [0031]: “Management logic 230 may combine the temperature difference information with the temperature information from thermal sensor 240” (emphasis added)); determining a slope of the temperature delta (a temperature difference over the measurement time interval is mathematically a slope); and predicting the temperature of the thermal hotspot based on the slope of the temperature delta (Paragraph [0031]: “Management logic 230 may combine the temperature difference information with the temperature information from thermal sensor 240 to determine an operational temperature value”).
Regarding claim 11: Shoemaker teaches a method comprising: receiving input to adjust one or more parameters used to control thermal conditions of a component (input device 460); obtaining temperature measurements of the component from two or more sensors of the component (thermal sensors 260, 265); estimating a temperature of a thermal hotspot of the component based on the temperature measurements obtained from the two or more sensors of the component and using the adjusted parameters (“to determine an operational temperature value”, Paragraph [0031]); and adjusting operation of the component based on the estimated temperature of the thermal hotspot (“management logic 230 may increase the refresh rate for memory array 235”, Paragraph [0031]).
Regarding claim 12: Shoemaker teaches the method of claim 11 (see above), wherein the receiving input further comprises: exposing a user interface for adjusting the one or more parameters (display device 450, input device 460); and receiving, via the user interface, the input to adjust the one or more parameters (“to communicate information and command selections”, Paragraph [0044]).
Regarding claim 13: Shoemaker teaches the method of claim 11 (see above), wherein the one or more parameters comprise at least one of a term, weight, degree, constant, or value of a thermal management algorithm (“management logic 230 may increase the refresh rate for memory array 235”, Paragraph [0031]).
Regarding claim 14: Shoemaker teaches the method of claim 11 (see above), wherein the adjusting comprises one or more of: adding or removing one or more gain terms from the parameters; adjusting one or more deltas to maintain between the two or more sensors of the component; adjusting a slope associated with estimating temperatures of thermal hotspots of the component based on temperature measurements produced by the two or more sensors; adjusting a presence or absence of one or more filters in the parameters; or adjusting parameters of the one or more filters (“management logic 230 may increase the refresh rate for memory array 235”, Paragraph [0031]).
Regarding claim 15: Shoemaker teaches the method of claim 11 (see above), wherein the receiving input further comprises receiving, from an application, the input to adjust the one or more parameters (“to communicate information and command selections”, Paragraph [0044]).
Regarding claim 16: Shoemaker teaches the method of claim 11 (see above), wherein the estimating further comprises estimating the temperature of the thermal hotspot at a first interval of time using a first set of parameters (Paragraph [0031]: “Management logic 230 may combine the temperature difference information with the temperature information from thermal sensor 240 to determine an operational temperature value”, the use of a temperature difference requires that a first temperature be taken at a first interval of time with a first set of parameters).
Regarding claim 17: Shoemaker teaches the method of claim 16 (see above), further comprising estimating an additional temperature of the thermal hotspot at a second interval of time using a second set of parameters, wherein the second set of parameters is different from the first set of parameters (Paragraph [0031]: “Management logic 230 may combine the temperature difference information with the temperature information from thermal sensor 240 to determine an operational temperature value”, the use of a temperature difference requires that a second temperature be taken at a second interval of time with a second set of parameters).
Regarding claim 18: Shoemaker teaches the method of claim 11 (see above), but does not directly teach that the thermal hotspot is located at a different portion of the component from where the two or more sensors are disposed.
However, with the location of the hotspot originally unknown, this is regarded as an intended result and therefore, is not given patentable weight.
Regarding claim 19: Shoemaker teaches the method of claim 11 (see above), but does not directly teach that the estimated temperature of the thermal hotspot is higher than the obtained temperature measurements.
However, since the estimated temperature is based on the first and second temperatures, this is regarded as an intended result and therefore, is not given patentable weight.
Regarding claim 20: Shoemaker teaches a device comprising: a stacked memory having a plurality of memory dies (one or more memory dies 150; upper die and lower die (220 and 250), Fig. 2); and a system manager (management logic 230) configured to: obtain temperature measurements from thermal sensors associated with different memory dies of the stacked memory (thermal sensors 240, 260, and 265); predict a hotspot of the stacked memory based on a difference between the temperature measurements from the thermal sensors using one or more adjustable parameters (“Management logic 230 may combine the temperature difference information with the temperature information from thermal sensor 240”, Paragraph [0031]); and adjust one or more settings of the stacked memory based on the predicted hotspot (“management logic 230 may increase the refresh rate for memory array 235”, Paragraph [0031]).
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20120249219 A1 (Shoemaker) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of TW 201715324 A (Coutts).
Regarding claim 2: Shoemaker teaches the system of claim 1 (see above), but does not directly teach that the system manager is further configured to estimate a location of the thermal hotspot.
However, Coutts teaches that “line 218 [where the sensors are aligned] intersects the estimated hot spot location”.
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system manager of Shoemaker with the hotspot location estimation of Coutts. This is because they are both ways to estimate a hotspot temperature of a chip/die. This is important in order to obtain reliable temperature estimations.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
CN 115004554 A teaches the use of two or more temperature sensors to acquire a temperature difference in order to estimate the frequency change rate to perform correction/compensation.
KR 20190011669 A teaches a system and method for active disturbance rejection based thermal control is configured to receive a first temperature measurement from a first thermal zone at a first active disturbance rejection thermal control (ADRC) controller.
JP 2018061369 A teaches a method of measuring the temperature of a heat sink involving measuring actual temperatures and deriving temperature changes over time.
US 8042993 B2 teaches a method for determining the thermal efficiency of a heat sink for an electrical component includes determining an estimated temperature of the heat sink.
US 7461272 B2 teaches modifying an operational parameter of a processor based on a temperature of a heat sink associated with the processor.
US 20030158683 A1 teaches the use of thermal sensor on an integrated circuit in order to determine its temperature.
US 6491416 B1 teaches the measurement of temperature at two time intervals with two sets of parameters.
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/JULIA FITZPATRICK/Examiner, Art Unit 2855
/TARUN SINHA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855