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
Applicants’ arguments with respect to independent claim have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 5-15, and 18-19 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.
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 1, 4, 16, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoon (US 2023/0087 A1), and further in view of Huang (US 2008/0018651 A1).
For claim 1,
Yoon teaches a storage device comprising: a nonvolatile memory device including a memory circuit configured to store first device information, and the nonvolatile memory device configured to operate based on the first device information (see abstract, figure 1, paragraphs [0003], [0005],[0031[, and other locations: view write operations as store operation: view boot; view boot information as said first device information; view executing boot as said operate based on;); a storage controller configured to control the nonvolatile memory device (see figure 1: view block 200 as said controller); and a buffer memory configured to store map data managed by the storage controller and to store second device information being a backup of the first device information (see [0039]: view system data loaded into buffer as said backup; system data includes mapping), wherein the first device information includes information about an operation parameter and an operation frequency of the nonvolatile memory device (see [0039]: view number of operation per memory block as said operation frequency), and wherein the storage controller is further configured to perform a recovery operation on the first device information stored in the memory circuit of the nonvolatile memory device (see abstract and other locations: view restore system data as said recovery operation), [], and wherein, during the recovery operation, the storage device is configured such that the storage controller reads the second device [] memory and reloads the second device information to the memory circuit (see abstract and other locations: using after recovering means dat was reloaded; also booting/rebooting always includes loading/reloading).
Yoon does not explicitly teach “based on the second device information stored in the buffer memory” and “information from the buffer”.
However, Huang teaches based on the second device information stored in the buffer memory (see [0011])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yoon to include “teaches based on the second device information stored in the buffer memory” and “information from the buffer”, as taught by Huang, because each one of Yoon and Huang teach booting from flash therefore they are analogous arts and because buffer is fast memory that stores available copy (see [0011]).
For claim 16,
The claim recites essentially similar limitations as claim 1; recovery suggests failure; claim 16 is a method.
For claim 20,
Yoon teaches an operation method of a storage device which includes a storage controller, a nonvolatile memory device, and a buffer memory, the method comprising: setting, by the nonvolatile memory device, first device information to a memory circuit included in the nonvolatile memory device; obtaining, by the storage controller, the first device information from the nonvolatile memory device and storing the first device information in the buffer memory as second device information (see rejection to claim 1); and when an operation count of the nonvolatile memory device reaches a threshold value, performing, by the storage controller, a recovery operation on the first device information stored in the memory circuit based on the second device information stored in the buffer memory (see rejection to claim 1 or 16: view first failure as said threshold value), wherein the operation count of the nonvolatile memory device includes a read count, a program count, or the number of P/E cycles of the nonvolatile memory device (see [0039], [0112]: failure/error occurs when first read or write fails), and wherein the first device information includes information about an operation parameter and an operation frequency of the nonvolatile memory device (see rejection to claim 1).
For claim 4,
The claim recites essentially similar limitations as claim 20.
Conclusion
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 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 YAIR LEIBOVICH whose telephone number is (571)270-3796. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00am-5:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ashish Thomas can be reached at 571-272-0631. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YAIR LEIBOVICH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2114
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