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 .
Other Refs: Higgins (US 20170286288) – Reclamation and Garbage collection
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.
7. Claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 8-10, 11-14, 18, 19,21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Akin (US 10891070 B1) and in view of Li (US 20240168684) and further in view of Deora (US 20240160562) and Muthiah (US 10331555)
Claim 1. Akin disclose A method for writing data to a solid-state drive (S SD) configured to store data in each comprising a plurality of memory blocks, the plurality of memory blocks logically organized as a plurality of superblocks, the method performed by a controller in communication with the plurality of memory dies, and comprising: (eg., a stream of data from a host (e.g., host system 120). the stream of data is composed of data units to be written to a non-volatile memory (e.g., NAND)….. LBA, col 9:5-12; solid-state drive (SSD), col 1:63; solid-state drive (SSD), col 5:34-36; Fig. 4).
associating a superblock of the plurality of superblocks with a data stream of a plurality of data streams received via a write command from a host interface (eg., the host system 120 sends data to the memory subsystem 110 for storage onto designated superblocks, where a set of superblocks is dedicated for storage of data from a stream of data, col 5:46-53; Fig. 4);
writing each data stream to the memory blocks of the respective superblock (eg., operation 405, the processing device writes data units from a stream of data into an allocated portion of memory, col 16:14-30);
identifying a superblock certain of the plurality of superblocks as [[a]] bad superblocks superblock if the associated data streams stream written to the memory blocks of the certain superblocks do superblock does not satisfy a predetermined criteria (eg., col 8:30-35 - When the percentage of all the data units in a block that are valid in within a range, matches, or exceeds a threshold value, the stream data manager 113 triggers a garbage collection process for the block. Fig. 4, Col 16:31-35 - At operation 410, the processing device evaluates a behavior of the stream of data.; col 17:19-21 - the processing device monitors the writing of the data units from the stream of data into the allocated portion of memory; ).
executing garbage collection only on the memory blocks of the certain superblocks that have been identified as bad superblocks (eg., col 17:23- 50 - At operation 425, after performing the estimated number of block stripe fills, the processing device performs garbage collection….the processing device determines a separate garbage collection threshold for each superblock, based on the evaluated behavior of the specific stream of data associated with the superblock.)
Akin does not disclose, but Li discloses
a plurality of memory dies (eg., 0002- Zones may spread across a single die or multiple dies)
predetermined criteria (eg., 0050 - predetermined minimum value may be a minimum empty zone that may not be set by the host, but may be predetermined based on an application or a customer requirement,; 0015 - stream device may include any devices based on a data-placement system (e.g., ZNS described above, flexible data placement (FDP), 0052; if too much such background operations are accumulated, the storage device may eventually become low on buffer space (e.g., single-level cell space) and garbage collection may be required which may further slowdown the system performance)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, with Koch, with Li, providing the benefit of strike a balance between performing deallocations and/or resets immediately and postponing and/or performing such operations in the background (see Li, 0015).
Akin in view of Li does not disclose, but Deora discloses
in response to the write command ; identifying the associated superblock as a bad superblock when it is determined that the write command does not satisfy a predetermined criteria (eg., 0024 - If the host issues a zone write command ; 0026 - selects a zone which was overwritten ) ; and
executing garbage collection only on the memory blocks of the certain of the plurality of superblocks that have been identified as bad superblocks. (eg., 0025 - a zone-based garbage collection process, referred to throughout this disclosure as a “GC sweep”. The controller may trigger the GC sweep in response to determining that a certain number of overwrites has occurred to the default superblock)
garbage collection excludes memory blocks of other of the plurality of superblocks that have not been identified as bad superblocks (eg., 0077 controller may refrain from relocating second data associated with the second zone (e.g., zone 2) from the first superblock (e.g., superblock 508) to the second superblock (e.g., free superblock 514) )
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, with Li, with Deora providing the benefit of To reclaim this memory used for overwrites by a respective zone … , thereby achieving compaction of valid zone data in allocated superblocks for respective zones. As a result of the zone-based garbage collection, the write amplification factor (WAF) of the flash storage device may be reduced. (see Deora, 0025).
Akin in view of Li and Deora does not disclose, but Muthiah discloses
, further in response to the write command; for garbage collection (eg., col 7:37-53 - an amount of valid data and/or valid data fragments in one or more source memory blocks (e.g., one or more SLC blocks) based on the size of the write command and/or the size of a data chunk included in the write command).
performing a targeted garbage collection; wherein targeted garbage collection (eg., col 7:60 – col 8:3 - folding component 152 may identify and/or calculate the validity ratio of data in one or more memory elements 123 of the non-volatile memory media 122 (e.g., flash element(s)) by determining the number of valid data fragments compared to the total number of data fragments in one or more destination memory blocks. Thus, the folding component 152 may dynamically compact valid data and/or valid data fragments for facilitating performance of a folding process and/or GC operations by a controller. );
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, with Li, with Deora, with Muthiah, providing the benefit to dynamically compact valid data and/or valid data fragments to facilitate folding operations (see Muthiah, col 7:37-40) compact an amount of valid data in a second memory block of a plurality of memory blocks based on a size of an I/O command (col 1:40-45).
Claim 2. Akin does not disclose, but Li discloses
wherein the predetermined criteria is defined by an NVMeTM Flexible Data Placement (FDP) protocol (eg., stream device may include any devices based on a data-placement system (e.g., ZNS described above, flexible data placement (FDP), 0052; if too much such background operations are accumulated, the storage device may eventually become low on buffer space (e.g., single-level cell space) and garbage collection may be required which may further slowdown the system performance, 0015)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, with Li, providing the benefit of strike a balance between performing deallocations and/or resets immediately and postponing and/or performing such operations in the background (see Li, 0015).
Claim 3. Akin discloses the write command causes the controller to delete all data in the memory blocks of the superblock prior to writing the data stream (eg., the controller 115 can mark, or otherwise designate, data as invalid (to be deleted/updated as a part of a garbage collection process) and valid (to be copied to a new block when deleting invalid data). After the valid data within the block has been copied to the new block, the controller 155 can erase the contents of the original block so that the original block can be usable for writing new data., col 5:55-63).
Akin does not disclose, but Li discloses
dies (eg., 0002- Zones may spread across a single die or multiple dies)
wherein the predetermined criteria is satisfied if (eg., 0050 - predetermined minimum value may be a minimum empty zone that may not be set by the host, but may be predetermined based on an application or a customer requirement,; 0015 - stream device may include any devices based on a data-placement system (e.g., ZNS described above, flexible data placement (FDP), 0052; if too much such background operations are accumulated, the storage device may eventually become low on buffer space (e.g., single-level cell space) and garbage collection may be required which may further slowdown the system performance)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, with Koch, with Li, providing the benefit of strike a balance between performing deallocations and/or resets immediately and postponing and/or performing such operations in the background (see Li, 0015).
Claim 4. Akin discloses wherein the predetermined criteria is satisfied if the write command causes the controller to prevent writing to the memory blocks of the superblock when the data stream contains data of a size that would exceed a size of the superblock (eg., if the number of valid data units in a block is within range of, has reached, or has exceeded the garbage collection threshold., col 9:53 – col 10:25).
Claim 5. Akin in view of Li does not disclose, but Deora discloses
executing garbage collection on memory blocks associated with an overflow superblock, the memory blocks associated with the overflow superblock containing overflow data from the data stream that exceeds the size of the superblock (eg., sub-drive 0 may be considered to have only overprovisioning for zone data (i.e., the controller may write to a superblock in sub-drive 0 whenever there is an overflow of zone data in a superblock in sub-drive 1). The controller may write such overflow data for multiple zones to a same superblock in sub-drive 0., 0054; write such overflow data for multiple zones to a same superblock in sub-drive 0., 0054; to consolidate zone data , 0055).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify Akin in view of Li with Deora, providing the benefit of flash storage device may apply a zone-based garbage collection process… superblocks (see Deora, 0025).
Claim 6. Akin in view of Li does not disclose, but Deora discloses
wherein the memory blocks of the overflow superblock consolidate overflow data from multiple data streams (eg., write such overflow data for multiple zones to a same superblock in sub-drive 0., 0054; to consolidate zone data , 0055).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, in view of Li with Deora, providing the benefit of flash storage device may apply a zone-based garbage collection process… superblocks (see Deora, 0025).
Claim 8. Akin discloses wherein each superblock contains at least one memory block from each memory die (eg., each superblock is composed of one or more block, col 5:37-40).
Claim 9. Akin discloses wherein each superblock is associated with a single stream of data (eg., superblocks for storage of data units from one or more streams of data., col 5:35-37) .
Claim 10. Akin discloses wherein the plurality of data streams originates from (i) multiple streams from different applications running on the host, (ii) multiple streams from multiple instances of a single application, or (iii) multiple streams within a single application. (eg., operation 205, the processing device receives a stream of data from a host (e.g., host system 120), col 9:6-10, Fig. 2; data units from different streams and identifies the appropriate superblock , col 9:30-33; non-volatile memory (e.g., NAND), col 9:9-10).
Claim 21. Akin discloses determining if are satisfied by checking compliance of write commands associated with the associated data streams with one or more rules specified for the certain superblocks (eg., Fig. 4 col 16:31-33 - At operation 410, the processing device evaluates a behavior of the stream of data.; col 16:42-48 - using the evaluated behavior, the processing device determines an estimated number of block stripe fills until the amount of valid data units for a block within the allocated portion of memory is predicted to be within a predetermined range of a garbage collection threshold value of valid data units in the block.; col 6:49-67 - stream efficiency value )
Akin does not disclose, but Li discloses
dies (eg., 0002- Zones may spread across a single die or multiple dies)
wherein the predetermined criteria is satisfied if (eg., 0050 - predetermined minimum value may be a minimum empty zone that may not be set by the host, but may be predetermined based on an application or a customer requirement,; 0015 - stream device may include any devices based on a data-placement system (e.g., ZNS described above, flexible data placement (FDP), 0052; if too much such background operations are accumulated, the storage device may eventually become low on buffer space (e.g., single-level cell space) and garbage collection may be required which may further slowdown the system performance)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, with Koch, with Li, providing the benefit of strike a balance between performing
Claim 11. Akin disclose A solid-state drive (SSD) comprising: a non-volatile semiconductor memory device comprising, the memory dies comprising a plurality of memory blocks, the plurality of memory blocks logically organized as a plurality of superblocks; and a controller in communication with the plurality of memory dies, the controller configured to (eg., a stream of data from a host (e.g., host system 120). In one embodiment, the stream of data is composed of data units to be written to a non-volatile memory (e.g., NAND)….. LBA, col 9:5-12; solid-state drive (SSD), col 1:63; solid-state drive (SSD), col 5:34-36; Fig. 4; controller 115 , col 4:9-12 Fig. 1).
associate a superblock of the plurality of superblocks with a data stream of a plurality of data streams received via a write command from a host interface (eg., the host system 120 sends data to the memory subsystem 110 for storage onto designated superblocks, where a set of superblocks is dedicated for storage of data from a stream of data, col 5:46-53; Fig. 4);
write each data stream to the memory blocks of the respective superblock (eg., operation 405, the processing device writes data units from a stream of data into an allocated portion of memory, col 16:14-30);
identifying a superblock certain of the plurality of superblocks as [[a]] bad superblocks superblock if the associated data streams stream written to the memory blocks of the certain superblocks do superblock does not satisfy a predetermined criteria (eg., col 8:30-35 - When the percentage of all the data units in a block that are valid in within a range, matches, or exceeds a threshold value, the stream data manager 113 triggers a garbage collection process for the block. Fig. 4, Col 16:31-35 - At operation 410, the processing device evaluates a behavior of the stream of data.; col 17:19-21 - the processing device monitors the writing of the data units from the stream of data into the allocated portion of memory; ).
executing garbage collection only on the memory blocks of the certain superblocks that have been identified as bad superblocks (eg., col 17:23- 50 - At operation 425, after performing the estimated number of block stripe fills, the processing device performs garbage collection….the processing device determines a separate garbage collection threshold for each superblock, based on the evaluated behavior of the specific stream of data associated with the superblock.)
Akin does not disclose, but Li discloses
a plurality of memory dies for storing data (eg., 0002- Zones may spread across a single die or multiple dies)
predetermined criteria (eg., 0050 - predetermined minimum value may be a minimum empty zone that may not be set by the host, but may be predetermined based on an application or a customer requirement,; 0015 - stream device may include any devices based on a data-placement system (e.g., ZNS described above, flexible data placement (FDP), 0052; if too much such background operations are accumulated, the storage device may eventually become low on buffer space (e.g., single-level cell space) and garbage collection may be required which may further slowdown the system performance)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, with Koch, with Li, providing the benefit of strike a balance between performing deallocations and/or resets immediately and postponing and/or performing such operations in the background (see Li, 0015).
Akin in view of Li does not disclose, but Deora discloses
in response to the write command ; identifying the associated superblock as a bad superblock when it is determined that the write command does not satisfy a predetermined criteria (eg., 0024 - If the host issues a zone write command ; 0026 - selects a zone which was overwritten ) ; and
executing garbage collection only on the memory blocks of the certain of the plurality of superblocks that have been identified as bad superblocks. (eg., 0025 - a zone-based garbage collection process, referred to throughout this disclosure as a “GC sweep”. The controller may trigger the GC sweep in response to determining that a certain number of overwrites has occurred to the default superblock)
garbage collection excludes memory blocks of other of the plurality of superblocks that have not been identified as bad superblocks (eg., 0077 controller may refrain from relocating second data associated with the second zone (e.g., zone 2) from the first superblock (e.g., superblock 508) to the second superblock (e.g., free superblock 514) )
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, with Li, with Deora providing the benefit of To reclaim this memory used for overwrites by a respective zone … , thereby achieving compaction of valid zone data in allocated superblocks for respective zones. As a result of the zone-based garbage collection, the write amplification factor (WAF) of the flash storage device may be reduced. (see Deora, 0025).
Akin in view of Li and Deora does not disclose, but Muthiah discloses
, further in response to the write command; for garbage collection (eg., col 7:37-53 - an amount of valid data and/or valid data fragments in one or more source memory blocks (e.g., one or more SLC blocks) based on the size of the write command and/or the size of a data chunk included in the write command).
performing a targeted garbage collection; wherein targeted garbage collection (eg., col 7:60 – col 8:3 - folding component 152 may identify and/or calculate the validity ratio of data in one or more memory elements 123 of the non-volatile memory media 122 (e.g., flash element(s)) by determining the number of valid data fragments compared to the total number of data fragments in one or more destination memory blocks. Thus, the folding component 152 may dynamically compact valid data and/or valid data fragments for facilitating performance of a folding process and/or GC operations by a controller. );
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, with Li, with Deora, with Muthiah, providing the benefit to dynamically compact valid data and/or valid data fragments to facilitate folding operations (see Muthiah, col 7:37-40) compact an amount of valid data in a second memory block of a plurality of memory blocks based on a size of an I/O command (col 1:40-45).
Claim 12 is rejected for reasons similar to Claim 2 above.
Claim 13 is rejected for reasons similar to Claim 3 above.
Claim 14 is rejected for reasons similar to Claim 4 above.
Claim 15 is rejected for reasons similar to Claim 5 above.
Claim 16 is rejected for reasons similar to Claim 6 above.
Claim 18 is rejected for reasons similar to Claim 8 above.
Claim 19 is rejected for reasons similar to Claim 9 above.
8. Claims 7, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Akin (US 10891070 B1) and in view of Li (cited above) and Deora (cited above) and Muthiah (cited above) and further in view of Kotte (US 20150347028)
Claim 7. Akin in view of Li and Deora and Muthiah does not disclose, but Kotte discloses
setting a flag associated with the superblock if the predetermined criteria is not satisfied; and executing garbage collection on the memory blocks of the superblock associated with the set flag (eg., if a region is determined to be an idle region (e.g., based on valid region flag 266, FIG. 2B), garbage collection is enabled for that region., 0123).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, in view of Li, and Deora, and Muthiah with Kotte, providing the benefit of storage device uses (616) the history of I/O request patterns in the region to adjust subsequent I/O processing in the region (see Kotte, 0123) to memory systems, and in particular, to real-time I/O pattern recognition to enhance performance and endurance of a storage device (0002).
Claim 17 is rejected for reasons similar to Claim 7 above.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/11/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
For claims 1 and 11, Applicant argues that that the cited references do not disclose the amended limitations. The Office disagrees.
In the present OA, the updated combination of references render the amended limitations as obvious.
Specifically, Akin in view of Li and Deora does not disclose, but Muthiah discloses
, further in response to the write command; for garbage collection (eg., col 7:37-53 - an amount of valid data and/or valid data fragments in one or more source memory blocks (e.g., one or more SLC blocks) based on the size of the write command and/or the size of a data chunk included in the write command).
performing a targeted garbage collection; wherein targeted garbage collection excludes (eg., col 7:60 – col 8:3 - folding component 152 may identify and/or calculate the validity ratio of data in one or more memory elements 123 of the non-volatile memory media 122 (e.g., flash element(s)) by determining the number of valid data fragments compared to the total number of data fragments in one or more destination memory blocks. Thus, the folding component 152 may dynamically compact valid data and/or valid data fragments for facilitating performance of a folding process and/or GC operations by a controller. );
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the filing date of the claimed invention to modify writing streams of data to superblocks in SSD as disclosed by Akin, with Li, with Deora, with Muthiah, providing the benefit to dynamically compact valid data and/or valid data fragments to facilitate folding operations (see Muthiah, col 7:37-40) compact an amount of valid data in a second memory block of a plurality of memory blocks based on a size of an I/O command (col 1:40-45).
Applicant’s arguments for dependent claims are based on their respective base independent claims which are addressed above.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GAUTAM SAIN whose telephone number is (571)270-3555. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jared Rutz can be reached at 571-272-5535. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/GAUTAM SAIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2135