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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 29 and 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Pemberton et al. (US 2016/0239528).
In regard to claim 1, Pemberton et al. teach a computerized method of generating histograms, comprising: providing a plurality of data elements in a uniform binary format that represents each data element as including a plurality of consecutive chunks, each chunk defining a sequence of consecutive binary digits (fig 2C and paragraph 41, keys are data elements comprising 4-bit nibbles); placing the plurality of data elements in nodes of a tree based on the plurality of chunks, the nodes of the tree arranged in successive levels that correspond to successive chunks of the plurality of chunks (fig. 2C, each child node is populated based on the value of the chunk. For example, 272A is chunk 00 and 272B is chunk 01), each node counting data elements placed in that node and in any child nodes of that node at lower levels of the tree (271A shows a value of 6. 272A and 272B show a value of 2 and 4); and traversing a set of nodes of the tree to generate a histogram of the data elements counted by the set of nodes (paragraph 54).
In regard to claim 2, Pemberton et al. teach wherein the set of nodes is a first set of nodes, and wherein the method further comprises, without modifying any nodes of the tree, traversing a second set of nodes of the tree to generate a second histogram, the second set of nodes including a level of the tree that is not included in the first set of nodes (fig. 1B key range 194 and paragraphs 38-40. Pemberton et al. show when one of the ranges is above a predetermined threshold a second histogram is made within that interval).
In regard to claim 29, Pemberton et al. teach all the elements of claim 29 (see claim 1 rejection above) including control circuitry that includes a set of processors coupled to memory (fig. 3).
In regard to claim 30, Pemberton et al. teach all the elements of claim 30 (see claim 1 rejection above) including set of non-transitory, computer-readable media having instructions (paragraph 92).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-28 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 an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: In regard to claims 3-27, the prior art fails to teach or make obvious, in combination with the claim’s other features, “wherein placing the plurality of data elements includes: providing a root node of the tree that includes 2N buckets and 2N counters, one bucket and one counter for each of the 2N binary values; storing a first data element of the plurality of data elements in a first bucket of the 2N buckets, the first bucket selected based on a most-significant N bits of the first data element; and incrementing the counter provided for the first bucket.”
In regard to claim 28, the prior art fails to teach or make obvious, in combination with the claim’s other features “wherein a multi-bit sorting value precedes the plurality of consecutive chunks in the uniform data format, and wherein the method further comprises providing, for each unique sorting value of data elements that are filed, a pointer to a root node of a respective tree, each respective tree constructed and arranged to file data elements having the sorting value as its most-significant bits.”
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH R HALEY whose telephone number is (571)272-0574. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amr Awad can be reached at 571-272-7764. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOSEPH R HALEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2621