FINAL REJECTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
1. Claims 1, 3-10 and 12-18 are presented for examination. Claims 2 and 11 are canceled.
2. The text of those applicable section of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in the prior Office Action.
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 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.
3. 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.
4. Claims 1, 3-10 and 12-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Redaelli (Redaelli), US publication no. 2024/0176498 in view of Wang et al. (Wang), US publication no. 2017/03713901.
As per claim 1, Redaelli discloses a system, comprising: a controller [130, figure 1], configured to receive at least one thermal control setting and a system temperature, and to perform a first thermal throttling operation according to at least one thermal control instruction [para 28, 37-39, 48]; and
a memory configured to receive the at least one thermal control setting and the system temperature from the controller [para 20, 25]2, and to generate the at least one thermal control instruction according to the at least one thermal control setting and the system temperature [para 24, 25, 48]; and
a first controller [110, figure 1], coupled to the controller, configured to provide the at least one thermal control setting and the system temperature of the system [para 20, 25].
Redaelli fails to disclose an application (APP) running on a CPU or a GPU of the system, configured to receive the at least one thermal control setting and the system temperature from the controller.
Wang discloses an application (APP) running on a CPU or a GPU of the system, configured to receive the at least one thermal control setting and the system temperature from the controller; and to generate the at least one thermal control instruction according to the at least one thermal control setting and the system temperature [figure 3; para 42-44, 61-62].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention to combine the teachings of Redaelli and Wang because they both disclose a thermal throttling system, the specify teachings of Wang stated above would have further enhanced the performance and functionality of Redaelli system to obtain predictable results.
Redaelli teaches:
[0020] In some implementations, the host device 110 may be configured to: transmit a low temperature thermal throttling command to a memory device that indicates for the
memory device to initiate a thermal throttling operation based on a temperature of the memory device not satisfying a temperature threshold, wherein the low temperature thermal throttling command indicates an amount of dummy data to be moved from the host device to a particular location of the memory device associated with the thermal throttling operation. The memory device 120 may be configured to: receive the low temperature thermal throttling command from the host device; initiate the thermal throttling operation based on receiving the low temperature thermal throttling command, wherein the memory device, to initiate the thermal throttling operation, is configured to move the dummy data from the host device to the particular location of the memory device; and complete the thermal throttling operation based on moving the amount of data from the host device to the particular location of the memory device.
[0024] The controller 130 may control operations of the memory 140, such as by executing one or more instructions. For example, the memory device 120 may store one or more instructions in the memory 140 as firmware, and the controller 130 may execute those one or more instructions. Additionally, or alternatively, the controller 130 may receive one or more instructions from the host device 110 via the host interface 150, and may execute those one or more instructions. In some implementations, a non-transitory computer-readable medium ( e.g., volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory) may store a set of instructions (e.g., one or more instructions or code) for execution by the controller 130. The controller 130 may execute the set of instructions to perform one or more operations or methods described herein. In some implementations, execution of the set of instructions, by the controller 130, causes the controller 130 and/or the memory device 120 to perform one or more operations or methods described herein. In some implementations, hardwired circuitry is used instead of or in combination with the one or more instructions to perform one or more operations or methods described herein. Additionally, or alternatively, the controller 130 and/or one or more components of the memory device 120 may be configured
to perform one or more operations or methods described herein. An instruction is sometimes called a "command."
[0025] For example, the controller 130 may transmit signals to and/or receive signals from the memory 140 based on the one or more instructions, such as to transfer data to ( e.g., write or program), to transfer data from (e.g., read), and/or to erase all or a portion of the memory 140 ( e.g., one or more memory cells, pages, sub-blocks, blocks, or planes of the memory 140). Additionally, or alternatively, the controller 130 may be configured to control access to the memory 140 and/or to provide a translation layer between the host device 110 and the memory 140 ( e.g., for mapping logical addresses to physical addresses of a memory array). In some implementations, the controller 130 may translate a host interface command ( e.g., a command received from the host device 110) into a memory interface command (e.g., a command for
performing an operation on a memory array).
[0038] The throttling operation command component 340 may be configured to instruct the memory device 120 to perform the low temperature thermal throttling operation.
For example, the throttling operation command component 340 may transmit a thermal throttling command (Lt-ThThr Command) to the memory device 120 that instructs the
memory device 120 to perform the thermal throttling operation. The thermal throttling command may indicate an amount of data to be written from the host device 110 to a
particular portion of the memory device 120 associated with the thermal throttling operation.
[0048] As shown by reference number 505, the host device 110 may transmit a low temperature thermal throttling command (LT-ThThr Command). The low temperature
thermal throttling command may instruct the memory device 120 to perform a thermal throttling operation. The thermal throttling operation may be used by the memory device 120 to increase a temperature of the memory device 120. In some
implementations, the low temperature thermal throttling command may include one or more parameters, such as an amount of data that is to be moved from the host device 110 to the memory device 120. In some implementations, the memory device 120 may transmit a temperature indication that indicates a temperature of the memory device 120. For example, the memory device 120 may transmit the temperature indication when the temperature of the memory device 120 does not satisfy a temperature threshold (e.g., when the temperature of the memory device is less than, or less than
or equal to, the temperature threshold). The temperature threshold may be a temperature that is between TO ( -40° C.) and Tl (20° C.). Additionally, or alternatively, the memory device 120 may periodically transmit the temperature of the memory device 120 to the host device 110, and the host device 110 may transmit the low temperature thermal throttling command to the memory device 120 based on the
temperature of the memory device 120 not satisfying the temperature threshold.
Wang teaches:
[0044] The controller 340 may include a hint generation circuit 342, a system configuration CF and the application APP running on the electronic device 300. The hint generation circuit 342 may generate the power-thermal hint Hpr according to the thermal detection result DRr, the power detection result DRp and the system configuration CF. For example, the hint generation circuit 342 may calculate a hint
level of the power-thermal hint Hpr according to the detected temperature TJ, the detected power PO a target temperature T G and a target power PG provided by the
system configuration CF. Next, the controller 340 may adjust the complexity level of the application APP and/or the system capacity according to the power-thermal hint Hpr,
wherein the system capacity may be a processor frequency and/or the number of activated processors of the processing circuit 310.
[0062] In some embodiments, the application APP (a video codec application) may adaptively adjust the complexity level without creating a mapping between a hint level and a video quality. For example, the application APP may adaptively adjust the complexity level according to the hint level of the power-thermal hint Hpr in the following manner.
As per claim 3, Redaelli discloses the controller is further configured to query the first controller whether to perform the first thermal throttling operation according to the at least one thermal control instruction [para 13, 16, 48].
As per claim 4, Wang discloses the first thermal throttling operation comprises at least one of the following steps: increasing or decreasing a target performance of the CPU or the GPU of the system; and increasing or decreasing a load of the CPU or the GPU [para 31-32, 42-44, 61-62].
As per claim 5, Wang discloses the APP is configured to generate a first threshold according to the at least one thermal control setting, and to compare the first threshold with the system temperature to generate the at least one thermal control instruction [para 42, 44].
As per claim 6, Wang discloses the controller is further configured to perform a second thermal throttling operation according to the at least one thermal control setting and the system temperature [para 42, 44, 59].
As per claim 7, Wang discloses the controller is configured to generate a second threshold according to the at least one thermal control setting, and to compare the second threshold with the system temperature to determine whether to perform the second thermal throttling operation [para 57-62].
As per claim 8, Wang discloses the second threshold is larger than the first threshold [figure 7; para 57-62].
As per claim 9, Wang discloses the second thermal throttling operation comprises at least one of the following steps: increasing a target performance of the CPU or the GPU of the system; and decreasing the target performance of the CPU or the GPU [figure 3; para 42, 44, 59-62].
As to claims 10 and 12-18, claims 1 and 3-9 basically are the corresponding elements that are carried out the method of operating step in claims 10 and 12-18. Accordingly, claims 10 and 12-18 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claims 1 and 3-9.
5. Examiner's note: Examiner has cited particular paragraphs and columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner. MPEP 2141.02 VI: “PRIOR ART MUST BE CONSIDERED IN ITS ENTIRETY, INCLUDING DISCLOSURES THAT TEACH AWAY FROM THE CLAIMS."
Response to Arguments
6. Applicant's arguments filed 2/25/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
7. Applicant’s arguments with respect to amended claim(s) 1, 3-10 and 12-18 have been considered but are moot in view of new ground of rejection.
See detailed rejection indicated above.
Conclusion
8. 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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHUN CAO whose telephone number is (571)272-3664. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 7:00 am-3:30 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kamini Shah can be reached on 571-272-2279. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHUN CAO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2115
1 Wang is cited by applicant.
2 The host transmitted the thermal setting to memory by the controller 130, only controller is connected to the host, see figures 1, 2.