DETAILED ACTION
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.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 6, 8-9, 12, 14-15, and 18 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claims 2-3, 8-9, and 14-15, the prior art as described in the prosecution history does not describe:
initializing each GPU accelerator card;
reading a running status information of each GPU accelerator card in sequence according to a preset order; and
determining whether the running status of each GPU accelerator card is normal according to the running status information of each GPU accelerator card;
wherein the generating the information reading instruction according to the temperature information and the other information to be read and transmitting the information reading instruction to each GPU accelerator card comprises:
generating the information reading instruction according to the temperature information and the other information to be read when determining that the running status of each GPU accelerator card is normal, and
transmitting the information reading instruction to each GPU accelerator card.
Regarding claims 6, 12, and 18, the prior art as described in the prosecution history does not describe:
inputting the information reading frequency and the optimized heat dissipation control cycle into a preset information reading quantity calculation model, and
obtaining the maximum number of information readings within one optimized heat dissipation control cycle output by the information reading quantity calculation model.
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.
Claims 1, 7, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0097055 (Wang) in view of
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0019711 (Zhang).
Claim 1:
The cited prior art describes an optimization method for heat dissipation control of GPU accelerator cards, which is applied to a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC), wherein the method comprises: (Wang: “The present disclosure relates to temperature management in a computing system.” Paragraph 0002; “In system 100, a baseboard management controller (BMC) 104 determines when and how to operate fans 106 to cool off GPUs 108. GPUs 108 can communicate with BMC 104 via a management bus 130 of computer system 100.” Paragraph 0026; “In a third embodiment of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions executable by at least one processor.” Paragraph 0009)
Wang does not explicitly describe an information reading frequency as described below. However, Zhang teaches the information readying frequency as described below.
obtaining
an information reading frequency and (Zhang: see the default value for transferring data packets 402 as illustrated in figure 4 and as described in paragraphs 0027, 0030; “In an embodiment, the default value is a fixed time period.” Paragraph 0027; “When the default value is achieved, the BMC 203 actively transfers the data packet to the FCB 202.” Paragraph 0027)
an optimized heat dissipation control cycle of each GPU accelerator card; (Wang: see the fan speed rate adjusted based on the current temperature (i.e., control cycle) as illustrated in figures 7A, 7B)
obtaining a maximum number of information readings of each GPU accelerator card within one optimized heat dissipation control cycle according to the information reading frequency and the optimized heat dissipation control cycle; (see the transferring temperature data per a default value in Zhang and the transfer of data during a control cycle in Wang) (Wang: see the initial condition being obtained during the control of the fan as illustrated in figures 7A, 7B and as described in paragraphs 0044, 0045) (Zhang: see the default value for transferring data packets 402 as illustrated in figure 4 and as described in paragraphs 0027, 0030; “In an embodiment, the default value is a fixed time period.” Paragraph 0027; “When the default value is achieved, the BMC 203 actively transfers the data packet to the FCB 202.” Paragraph 0027)
determining other information, in addition to a temperature information, to be read during a current heat dissipation control cycle, ensuring that a sum of the temperature information and the other information to be read is less than or equal to the maximum number of information readings; (see the transferring temperature data per a default value (i.e., equal to) in Zhang and the transfer of data during a control cycle in Wang) (Wang: “During such communications, GPUs 108 can provide information regarding GPUs 108 health, operating, and performance conditions to BMC 104. Such information can include a GPU voltage and temperature.” Paragraph 0026) (Zhang: see the default value for transferring data packets 402 as illustrated in figure 4 and as described in paragraphs 0027, 0030; “In an embodiment, the default value is a fixed time period.” Paragraph 0027; “When the default value is achieved, the BMC 203 actively transfers the data packet to the FCB 202.” Paragraph 0027)
generating an information reading instruction according to the temperature information and the other information to be read, and transmitting the information reading instruction to each GPU accelerator card; and (Wang: “OS 620 can send a request for monitoring information from a GPU to a driver communication interface 628. Driver communication interface 628 can pass the request to device driver 630. In accordance with the present disclosure, device driver 630 is configured to retrieve the monitoring information from the GPU. After device driver 630 obtains the monitoring information, device driver 630 can pass the information to OS 620 through driver communication interface 628. OS 620 can then send the monitoring information via system interface tool 622.” Paragraph 0040)
in each optimized heat dissipation control cycle, adjusting a fan speed according to the temperature information received from each GPU accelerator card. (Wang: see the fan speed rate adjusted based on the current temperature as illustrated in figures 7A, 7B; “Thereafter, the BMC 104 can transmit control signals to fans 106 via management bus 130.” Paragraph 0026; “That is, in response to the initial conditions in FIG. 7A, BMC 104 can be configured to consider temperature information from GPU 108a in determining a proper capacity for fan 106a. In particular, FIG. 7B shows that fan 106a is reconfigured to operate at 80% capacity. This increase in capacity for fan 106a corresponds to a decrease in the temperature at GPU 108a to 82 degrees Celsius, and at BMC 104, to 30 degrees Celsius. Because of the reduced temperature at GPU 108a, GPU 108a can increase its utilization.” Paragraph 0045)
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that applying the known technique of Wang, namely, thermal management using a management controller, with the known techniques of Zhang, namely, data collection using a management module, would have yielded predictable results and resulted in an improved system. Accordingly, applying the teachings of Wang to control a fan speed rate based on temperature data with the teachings of Zhang to manage operation of server nodes based on operation data would have been recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art as resulting in an improved data center control system (i.e., the combination of the references provides for thermal management using various data sources and timing based on the teachings of thermal management using various data sources in Wang and the teachings of thermal management using various timings in Zhang).
Claim 7:
Claim 7 is substantially similar to claim 1 and is rejected based on the same reasons and rationale.
Claim 13:
Claim 13 is substantially similar to claim 1 and is rejected based on the same reasons and rationale.
Claims 4-5, 10-11, and 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0097055 (Wang) in view of
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0019711 (Zhang) and further in view of
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0306400 (Kawamura).
Claim 4:
Wang and Zhang do not explicitly describe using maximum temperature as described below. However, Kawamura teaches the using maximum temperature as described below.
The cited prior art describes the method according to claim 1, wherein the adjusting the fan speed according to the temperature information received from each GPU accelerator card comprises:
obtaining a maximum temperature value among temperatures of the GPU accelerator cards according to the temperature information received from each GPU accelerator card; and (Kawamura: see the group ID with the high cooling level 17b for high temperature as illustrated in figure 11; “Further, the CPU 16 sets the corresponding cooling level to “High” in the cooling table 17B.” paragraph 0067; “In S101, the CPU 16 determines whether the temperature measurement value of one of the cards #1 to #4 is equal to or more than the high temperature threshold. When it is determined that the temperature measurement value is less than the high temperature threshold for all the cards #1 to #4 (“No” at S101), the processing returns to S101. When it is determined that the temperature measurement value of one of the cards #1 to #4 is equal to or more than the high temperature threshold (“Yes” at S101), the CPU 16 increases the cooling level (number of revolutions) of the corresponding fan unit 14, and collects the temperature measurement values and the unused resource amounts from the cards #1 to #4 (S102).” Paragraph 0088)
adjusting the fan speed according to the maximum temperature value and a preset fan speed adjustment rule when the maximum temperature value is less than or equal to a temperature warning value. (Kawamura: “In S04, the CPU 16 sets the value of the temperature state flag (i) of the entry of the card (i) to “High”. In S05, the CPU 16 identifies a group to which the card (i) belongs on the basis of the entry of the card (i) (the group is identified by referring to the group ID), and performs a control such that the cooling level of the fan unit 14 for cooling the cards 13 belonging to the group to “High”. For example, in the case of the group ID “1”, the CPU 16 sends a control signal to change the number of revolutions to the “high-speed revolution”, to the fan unit 14 “#1” corresponding to the group ID “1”, and the fan unit 14 “#1” increases the number of revolutions. Further, the CPU 16 sets the corresponding cooling level to “High” in the cooling table 17B.” paragraph 0067; “In S101, the CPU 16 determines whether the temperature measurement value of one of the cards #1 to #4 is equal to or more than the high temperature threshold. When it is determined that the temperature measurement value is less than the high temperature threshold for all the cards #1 to #4 (“No” at S101), the processing returns to S101. When it is determined that the temperature measurement value of one of the cards #1 to #4 is equal to or more than the high temperature threshold (“Yes” at S101), the CPU 16 increases the cooling level (number of revolutions) of the corresponding fan unit 14, and collects the temperature measurement values and the unused resource amounts from the cards #1 to #4 (S102).” Paragraph 0088)
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that applying the known technique of Wang, namely, thermal management using a management controller, with the known techniques of Zhang, namely, data collection using a management module, and the known techniques of Kawamura, namely, cooling control for an electronic apparatus would have yielded predictable results and resulted in an improved system. Accordingly, applying the teachings of Wang to control a fan speed rate based on temperature data with the teachings of Zhang to manage operation of server nodes based on operation data and the teachings of Kawamura to use a variety of data analysis to control cooling of an electronic apparatus would have been recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art as resulting in an improved data center control system (i.e., the combination of the references provides for thermal management using various data sources, data analysis techniques, and timing based on the teachings of thermal management using various data sources in Wang and the teachings of thermal management using various timings in Zhang and the teachings of cooling management using various data analysis techniques in Kawamura).
Claim 5:
Wang and Zhang do not explicitly describe using maximum temperature as described below. However, Kawamura teaches the using maximum temperature as described below.
The cited prior art describes the method according to claim 4, further comprising: when the maximum temperature value exceeds the temperature warning value, adjusting the fan speed to a maximum speed until the maximum temperature becomes less than the temperature warning value due to heat dissipation of each GPU accelerator card. (Kawamura: “When the temperature measurement value (i) is equal to or more than the high temperature threshold (i) (“Yes” at S03), the processing proceeds to S04. In S03, it may be determined whether the value exceeds the high temperature threshold.” Paragraph 0066; “In S04, the CPU 16 sets the value of the temperature state flag (i) of the entry of the card (i) to “High”. In S05, the CPU 16 identifies a group to which the card (i) belongs on the basis of the entry of the card (i) (the group is identified by referring to the group ID), and performs a control such that the cooling level of the fan unit 14 for cooling the cards 13 belonging to the group to “High”. For example, in the case of the group ID “1”, the CPU 16 sends a control signal to change the number of revolutions to the “high-speed revolution”, to the fan unit 14 “#1” corresponding to the group ID “1”, and the fan unit 14 “#1” increases the number of revolutions. Further, the CPU 16 sets the corresponding cooling level to “High” in the cooling table 17B.” paragraph 0067)
Wang, Zhang, and Kawamura are combinable for the same rationale as set forth above with respect to claim 4.
Claim 10:
Claim 10 is substantially similar to claim 4 and is rejected based on the same reasons and rationale.
Claim 11:
Claim 11 is substantially similar to claim 5 and is rejected based on the same reasons and rationale.
Claim 16:
Claim 16 is substantially similar to claim 4 and is rejected based on the same reasons and rationale.
Claim 17:
Claim 17 is substantially similar to claim 5 and is rejected based on the same reasons and rationale.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0333849 describes utilizing fans with information handling systems.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0097056 describes thermal management via a BMC manager.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0323102 describes controlling air distribution to electronic components.
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/Christopher E. Everett/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2117