DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to 04/10/2026 Amendment.
Claims 1-9, 17-18, 20-23 are currently pending. Claims 10-16, 19 have been cancelled.
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.
Claims 1-9, 17-18, 21-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by PGPub. 2019/0065404 to Kabra et al. (hereafter Kabra).
Regarding independent claim 1, Kabra teaches a device comprising:
a storage medium (FIG. 1: NAND cache 112);
a controller (FIG. 1: SSD Controller 106); and
an interface (FIG. 1: adaptive cache controller 110) having a set of resources (such as configuration field EP[n:0], see paragraph [0031]) configurable according to a plurality of different modes (see FIGS. 2A-2F and FIG. 3A, with EP[n:0] having value [000], the NAND cache 112 is set to read only mode; with EP[n:0] having value [001]-[110], the NAND cache 112 is set to read and write mode; and with EP[n:0] having value [111], the NAND cache 112 is set to write only mode); wherein the controller is configured to analyze a stream of commands received in the interface (see paragraph [0025]) to identify, from the plurality of different modes, a write-only mode of configuring the resourccs of operation to operate in based on the stream of commands, wherein the stream of commands comprises a proportion of read commands relative to a quantity of commands included in the stream of commands and a proportion of write commands relative to the quantity of commands included in the stream of commands (see proportion of read, write and read/write in FIGS. 2A-2F); and
configure the interface to operate in the mode of operation in response to identifying the mode of operation to operate in, wherein configuring the interface includes redefining interface signals of the interface to be read data oriented, write data oriented, or a combination of both (in response to value of EP[n:0]).
Regarding dependent claim 2, Kabra teaches wherein the stream of commands includes read/write configuration data, and a write-only mode is indicated by the read/write configuration data (I/O profile comprises caching policy, which is considered configuration data, see paragraph [0025]).
Regarding dependent claim 3, Kabra teaches wherein: the resources include different types of memory (see paragraph [0014]); and the controller is further configured to, in response to identifying the mode of operation to operate in, change a type of memory used for handling read or write commands (FIG. 1 shows different data paths to/from HDD 114 and NAND cache 112, see paragraph [0026]).
Regarding dependent claim 4, Kabra teaches wherein configuring the resources comprises increasing a portion of the resources used for handling a first type of command, and decreasing a portion of the resources used for handling a second type of command (e.g. changing from FIG. 2B to FIG. 2C).
Regarding dependent claim 5, Kabra teaches wherein configuring the resources comprises changing a use of a first portion of the resources from handling commands received in the interface to other functions (e.g. changing resource for FIG. 2B to resource for FIG. 2C).
Regarding dependent claim 6, Kabra teaches wherein the other functions include at least one of maintenance functions or error correction functions (such as data read and recovery, see paragraph [0016]).
Regarding dependent claim 7, Kabra teaches wherein the controller is further configured to change a number of signals of the interface used to transmit a type of command (because I/O profile relates to number of signals of the interface, such as changing data paths of FIG. 1).
Regarding dependent claim 8, Kabra teaches wherein analyzing the stream of commands comprises determining a pattern of data access (such as dynamically determining and reallocate caching resources, see FIG. 5 and paragraph [0025]).
Regarding dependent claim 9, Kabra teaches wherein analyzing the stream of commands comprises determining that a type of data access is write-only or read-only (when FIG. 2A of 2F occurs).
Regarding independent claim 17, Kabra teaches a method comprising:
analyzing a quantity of commands received via an interface (such as dynamically determining and reallocate caching resources, see FIG. 5 and paragraph [0025]) to determine a proportion of read commands relative to the quantity of commands and a proportion of write commands relative to the quantity of commands (changing caching policy as shown in FIGS. 2A-2F); and
configuring, based on analyzing the commands, resources of a storage device to operate in a mode of operation that is based on the proportion of read commands relative to the quantity of commands and the proportion of write commands relative to the quantity of commands (see FIGS. 2A-2F); and
configuring the interface to operate in the mode of operation in response to identifying the mode of operation to operate in, wherein configuring the interface includes redefining interface signals of the interface to be read data oriented, write data oriented, or a combination of both (see FIGS. 2A-2F and FIG. 3A, with EP[n:0] having value [000], the NAND cache 112 is set to read only mode; with EP[n:0] having value [001]-[110], the NAND cache 112 is set to read and write mode; and with EP[n:0] having value [111], the NAND cache 112 is set to write only mode).
Regarding dependent claim 18, Kabra teaches wherein configuring the resources comprises re-allocating memory or registers configured as read buffers for use as write buffers (e.g. changing from FIG. 2B to FIG. 2C, when memory used for read cache is re-allocated write cache).
Regarding independent claim 21, Kabra teaches a device comprising:
an interface (FIG. 1: adaptive cache controller 110); and
a controller (FIG. 1: SSD Controller 106) configured to:
analyze a stream of commands received in the interface (such as dynamically determining and reallocate caching resources, see FIG. 5 and paragraph [0025]); and
configure, based on analyzing the stream of commands, resources of storage device to operate in a mode of operation based on the commands (changing caching policy as shown in FIGS. 2A-2F), wherein the commands comprise a proportion of read commands relative to a quantity of commands included in the stream of commands and a proportion of write commands relative to the quantity of commands included in the stream of commands (see FIGS. 2A-2F); and
configure the interface to operate in the mode of operation in response to identifying the mode of operation to operate in, wherein configuring the interface includes redefining interface signals of the interface to be read data oriented, write data oriented, or a combination of both (see FIGS. 2A-2F and FIG. 3A, with EP[n:0] having value [000], the NAND cache 112 is set to read only mode; with EP[n:0] having value [001]-[110], the NAND cache 112 is set to read and write mode; and with EP[n:0] having value [111], the NAND cache 112 is set to write only mode).
Regarding dependent claim 22, Kabra teaches wherein an analysis of the commands comprises a determination of the proportion of read commands and proportion of write commands (FIGS. 2A-2F: percentage of read cache and write cache).
Regarding dependent claim 23, Kabra teaches wherein the mode of operation comprises a write-only mode (see FIG. 2F).
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.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kabra in view of US 10,606,767 to Olarig et al. (hereafter Olarig).
Kabra teaches, as applied in prior rejection of claim 17, all claimed subject matter except further limitations set forth in the following claim.
Regarding dependent claim 20, Olarig teaches autonomous self-driving vehicle using solid-state device (SSD), and a host of peripheral sensors that can deliver sensory data to SSD for processing.
Since Kabra and Olarig are both from the same field of endeavor, the purpose disclosed by Kabra would have been recognized in the pertinent art of Olarig.
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to use the SSD of Kabra for automotive applications because there is wide range of application for SSDs.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 04/10/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Kabra describes an adaptive cache controller 110 of FIG. 1 comprising configuration field EP[n:0] in paragraph [0031]. FIG. 3 clearly shows with EP[n:0] having value [000], the NAND cache 112 is set to read only mode; with EP[n:0] having value [001]-[110], the NAND cache 112 is set to read and write mode; and with EP[n:0] having value [111], the NAND cache 112 is set to write only mode. Therefore, Kabra teaches the amended limitations.
Claims 1-9, 17-18, 20-23 maintain rejected for the reason set forth.
Conclusion
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May 19, 2026
/VANTHU T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2824
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