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 .
Claims 1-28 are presented for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 7 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As to claims 7, the phrase “receiving the token back” lacks sufficient antecedent basis. Claim 1 recites “the token,” but claim 1 does not recite that the first request node previously transmitted or otherwise if token to the first home node. Therefore, it is unclear what prior transfer is referenced by the term “back.” Claim 16 is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 7.
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 1-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ringe et al. (hereinafter RINGE) (US 2021/0058335 A1) in view of Mannava et al. (hereinafter MANNAVA) (US 2013/0042032 A1).
RINGE was cited in the IDS.
As to claim 1, RINGE teaches a device for data communication (network-on-chip (NoC)) ([0022]), comprising:
a data network (Network 138, network-on-chip (NoC), Interconnect 101) ([0022]-[0023]; Fig. 2);
one or more home nodes (completers such as Home Node (HN-F) 202 and/or Home Node (HN-I) 204) ([0032]; [0036]; Fig. 2); and
a plurality of request nodes (RN-F 210, RN-F 220, RN-I 230) (Fig. 2) connected (via crossbar switch matrices) to the one or more home nodes (Home Node (HN-F) 202 and/or Home Node (HN-I) 204) (Fig. 2) via the data network (Network 138) (Fig. 2), each of the plurality of request nodes configured to send an ordered write (OW) request message (an ordered write stream between RN-I 230 and HN-I 204), a first request node among the plurality of request nodes being configured to ([0031]; [0036]; [0043]; [0051]-[0053]; Figs 2 and 3A):
send a first OW request message (WRITE A) (Fig. 5) to a first home node (HN-I 204) (Fig. 5) among the one or more home nodes, the first OW request message configured to initiate OW communication between the first request node (RN-I 230) (Fig. 5) and the first home node using a token (CRD_GNTA, credit grant, etc.) issued by the first home node, and receive a write response message (BR_RSP A) from the first home node (HN-I 204) (Fig. 5), the write response message to indicate that the first home node is ready to receive write data (buffer ready response message) from the first request node (In response to receiving the WRITE A request message, HN-I 204 sends a buffer ready response message (e.g., BR_RSP A) to RN-I 230 over the response channel of interconnect 100, which provides the data buffer identifier for the transaction.) ([0060]) ([0052]; [0056]-[0060]; Fig. 5).
Although RINGE does not explicitly disclose the write response message to comprise the token, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include RINGE’s CRD_GNTA/token in WRITE A request and the write response message comprising the same token from the request. This would connect or establish the association between the request and response, simplify tracking, and improve token reuse.
In addition, MANNAVA teaches that a credit grant signal may be a signal transmitted on its own or it may be an indicator associated with a response signal ([0092]; Figs. 4 and 6).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the application to include the feature of the write response message to comprise the token, as suggested in RINGE and explicitly taught in MANNAVA. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to provide the predicted result of being able to associate a response signal with a request signal or to utilize the same token.
As to claim 2. RINGE teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the token is configured to reserve resources at the first home node for receiving the write data from the first request node (pre-authorized” by HN-I 204 for subsequent allocation and processing) ([0055]-[0058]; [0060]; [0089]).
As to claim 3, RINGE ([0052]-[0054]; Fig. 5) in view of MANNAVA ([0069]; [0090]; Fig. 6) teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the first OW request message comprises a token change request that is configured to at least one of: request the first home node to increase a token allocation of the first request node; request the first home node to decrease a token allocation of the first request node; request the first home node to maintain a token allocation of the first request node; or clear a token allocation of the first request node.
As to claim 4, RINGE ([0052]-[0054]; Fig. 5) in view of MANNAVA ([0069]; [0090]; Fig. 6) teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the first request node is further configured to: determine a level of pending write request at the first request node; and piggyback in the first OW request message a request to increase a token allocation of the first request node in response to the level of pending write request being greater than a predetermined threshold.
As to claim 5, RINGE ([0052]-[0054]; Fig. 5) in view of MANNAVA ([0034]-[0035]; [0076]; [0089]-[0090]; Fig. 6) teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the first request node is further configured to: determine a level of pending write request at the first request node; and piggyback in the first OW request message a request to decrease a token allocation of the first request node in response to the level of pending write request being lower than a predetermined threshold.
As to claim 6, RINGE ([0052]-[0054]; Fig. 5) in view of MANNAVA ([0034]-[0035]; [0076]; [0089]-[0090]; Fig. 6) teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the first request node is further configured to: determine a level of pending write request; and piggyback a request in the first OW request message to clear a token allocation of the first request node in response to finding no pending write request at the first request node.
As to claim 7, RINGE teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the first request node is further configured to: send a second OW request message to a second home node among the one or more home nodes, irrespective of receiving the token back from the first home node ([0032]; [0036]-[0041]; [0057]; [0065]; Figs 2-3).
As to claim 8, RINGE teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the first request node is further configured to: send a second OW request message to a second home node among the one or more home nodes to initiate OW communication between the first request node and the second home node using a token issued by the second home node ([0055]-[0058]).
As to claim 9, RINGE teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the first request node is further configured to: send, to the first home node, a request to increase a token allocation to the first request node; and receive, from the first home node, a grant of the request to increase a token allocation to the first request node, based on at least one of: an availability of one or more tokens at the first home node; a priority level of the first request node relative to another request node of the plurality of request nodes; or a level of OW communication in the data network ([0054]-[0056]; [0081]; [0119]).
As to claim 10, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 1.
As to claim 11, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 2.
As to claim 12, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 3.
As to claim 13, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 4.
As to claim 14, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 5.
As to claim 15, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 6.
As to claim 16, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 7.
As to claim 17, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 8.
As to claim 18, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 9.
As to claim 19, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 1.
As to claim 20, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 2.
As to claim 21, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 3.
As to claim 22, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 9.
As to claim 23, RINGE ([0052]-[0054]; Fig. 5) in view of MANNAVA ([0023]-[0024]; [0034]-[0035]; [0064]; [0076]; [0089]-[0090]; Fig. 6) teaches the device of claim 19, wherein the home node is further configured to: receive, from the first request node, a request to decrease a token allocation to the first request node; and transmit, to the first request node, a grant of the request to decrease a token allocation to the first request node, based on at least one of: an availability of one or more tokens at the home node; a priority level of the first request node relative to another request node of the plurality of request nodes; or a level of OW communication in the data network.
As to claim 24, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 1.
As to claim 25, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 20.
As to claim 26, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 21.
As to claim 27, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 22.
As to claim 28, it is rejected for the same reasons as stated in the rejection of claim 23.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Catalano et al. (US 20220052968 A1) discloses a network buffer credit allocation.
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/KENNETH TANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2197
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