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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This responds to Applicant’s Arguments/Remarks filed 10/21/2025. Claims 1-2, 5, 8-9, 11, 16 have been amended. Claims 1-20 are now pending in this Application.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03/19/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
Applicant’s amendment to claims 9-10 has been fully considered but does not overcome the rejection under 35 USC § 101. The amendment does not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application because it does not improve the functioning of a computer or another technology, nor does it effect a particular treatment or transformation of an article. Accordingly, the amendment claim do not recite significantly more than the judicial exception.
Therefore, the rejection of claims 9-10 under 35 USC § 101 is maintained.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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(s) 1-8, 11-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DE (U.S. Pub No. 2018/0032731), and Kim et al (U.S. Pub No. 2022/0206713]), and further in view of Hildebrand et al (U.S. Pub No. 2016/0092464 A1).
As per claim 1, DE discloses an operation method of a storage device, the storage device comprising a meta buffer and a journal buffer, the operation method comprising:
generating an update information for a meta data stored in the meta buffer (Par [0020, 0061] new binary version detected);
obtaining, from the update information, a first meta data address of the meta data (Par [0066-0067]);
based on the first meta data address matching a meta data address of a first journal which is stored in the journal buffer, invalidating the first journal; and recording, in the journal buffer a second journal in corresponding to the update information (Par [0040, 0067-0071]]).
DE does not explicitly disclose meta buffer and journal buffer and invalidating journal.
However, Kim discloses meta buffer and journal buffer and invalidating journal (Par [0038, 0059-0061, 0083, 0117]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the feature as disclosed in Kim into the teachings of DE in order to improve a storage device (Par [0169]).
DE and Kim do not explicitly disclose recovering the meta data by replaying journal data in the journal buffer; and performing an input/output operation based on the recovered meta data.
However, Hildebrand discloses recovering the meta data by replaying journal data in the journal buffer; and performing an input/output operation based on the recovered meta data (Par [0050-0051]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the feature as disclosed in Hildebrand into the teachings of DE as modified by Kim in order to improve the system (Par [0019]).
As per claim 2, DE discloses the operation method of claim 1, comprising searching for the first journal buffer based on a journal search table that stores at least one meta data address and at least one journal buffer identifier (Fig 6 and par [0014, 0036, 0046]).
DE does not explicitly disclose journal buffer.
However, Kim discloses journal buffer (Par [0059-0061, 0083, 0117]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the feature as disclosed in Kim into the teachings of DE in order to improve a storage device (Par [0169]).
As per claim 3, DE discloses the operation method of claim 2, further comprising recording, in the journal search table, a journal information corresponding the second journal (Par [0067-0072]).
DE does not explicitly disclose journal.
However, Kim discloses journal (Par [0059-0061, 0083, 0117]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the feature as disclosed in Kim into the teachings of DE in order to improve a storage device (Par [0169]).
As per claim 4, DE discloses the operation method of claim 3, wherein the: recording of the journal information comprises: obtaining a journal buffer identifier indicating where the second journal is located in the journal buffer; and recording the journal buffer identifier and the first meta data address in the journal search table (Par [0036, 0046]).
DE does not explicitly disclose journal.
However, Kim discloses journal (Par [0059-0061, 0083, 0117]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the feature as disclosed in Kim into the teachings of DE in order to improve a storage device (Par [0169]).
As per claim 5, Kim discloses the operation method of claim 4, further comprising: based on the first meta data address matching the meta data address of the first journal, removing journal information corresponding the first journal from the journal search table (Par [0038, 0051]).
As per claim 6, DE discloses the operation method of claim 1, wherein indicating the first journal comprises: correcting a value of a valid field of the first journal (Par [0044]).
As per claim 7, Kim discloses operation method of claim 1, the storage device is configured to communicate with a host and includes a nonvolatile memory, and
The meta data is a mapping table for a logical block address of the host and a physical block address of the nonvolatile memory (Par [0007]).
As per claim 8, Kim disclose the operation method of claim 1, wherein the invalidating of the first journal and the recording of the second journal are performed by: (Par [0007-0008]).
DE and Kim do not explicitly disclose overwriting the first journal with the second journal to a memory where the first journal is located in the journal buffer.
However, Hildebrand discloses overwriting the second journal to a memory where the first journal is located in the journal buffer (Par [0044]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the feature as disclosed in Hildebrand into the teachings of DE as modified by Kim in order to improve the system (Par [0019]).
As per claim 11, DE discloses a storage device comprising:
generate an update information based on updating the meta data (Par [0020, 0061] new binary version detected);
obtain a first meta data address corresponding to the meta data (Par [0066-0067]);
invalidate a first journal which is included in the journal data and has the first meta data address; generate a second journal based on the update information; and update the journal data based on the second journal (Par [0040, 0067-0071]]).
DE discloses memories but does not explicitly disclose a non-volatile memory; a buffer memory configured to store a metadata and a journal data; a storage controller configure to; and meta buffer and journal buffer, invalidate journal.
However, Kim discloses a non-volatile memory; a buffer memory configured to store a metadata and a journal data; a storage controller configure to (Par [0007-0008]);
meta buffer and journal buffer, invalidate journal (Par [0038, 0059-0061, 0083, 0117]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the feature as disclosed in Kim into the teachings of DE in order to improve a storage device (Par [0169]).
DE and Kim do not explicitly disclose recovering the meta data by replaying journal data in the journal buffer; and performing an input/output operation based on the recovered meta data.
However, Hildebrand discloses recovering the meta data by replaying journal data in the journal buffer; and performing an input/output operation based on the recovered meta data (Par [0050-0051]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the feature as disclosed in Hildebrand into the teachings of DE as modified by Kim in order to improve the system (Par [0019]).
As per claim 12, Kim discloses the storage device of claim 11, wherein the storage controller is configured to communicate with a host ; and the meta data is a mapping table for a logical block address of the host and a physical block address of the non-volatile memory (par [0007, 0075-0080]).
As per claim 13, DE discloses the storage device of claim 12, wherein the storage controller is configured to determine, based on a journal search table storing a journal information of the journal data, whether the first journal has the first meta data address (par [0066-0067]).
DE does not explicitly disclose journal.
However, Kim discloses journal (Par [0059-0061, 0083, 0117]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the feature as disclosed in Kim into the teachings of DE in order to improve a storage device (Par [0169]).
As per claim 14, DE discloses the storage device of claim 13, wherein the storage controller is further configured to update the journal search table based on the second journal (par [0066-0067]).
DE does not explicitly disclose journal.
However, Kim discloses journal (Par [0059-0061, 0083, 0117]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the feature as disclosed in Kim into the teachings of DE in order to improve a storage device (Par [0169]).
As per claim 15, Kim discloses the storage device of claim 11, wherein the storage controller is configured to invalidate the first journal by changing a value of a valid field of the first journal (par [0075-0080).
Claim(s) 9-10 and 16-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DE (U.S. Pub No. 2018/0032731), and Kim et al (U.S. Pub No. 2021/0026763 A1), and further in view of Hildebrand et al (U.S. Pub No. 2016/0092464 A1).
As per claim 9, DE discloses an operation method of a storage device, the operation method comprising:
obtaining meta data (Par [0029]);
obtaining journal data including a first journal having a first meta data address and a second journal having a second meta data address; and recovering the meta data by parallelly replaying the first journal and the second journal (Par [0066, 0067]).
DE discloses data but DE does not explicitly disclose dividing the journal data into at least two journal fragments; and recovering the meta data in parallel based on the at least two journal fragments by a plurality of replayers.
However, Kim discloses dividing the journal data into at least two journal fragments (Par [0036]); and
recovering the meta data in parallel based on the at least two journal fragments by a plurality of replayers (Par [0032, 0064]).
performing an input/output operation based on the recovered meta data (par [0024, 0034]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the features as disclosed in Kim into the teaching of DE in order to improve the system (Par [0002]).
Kim discloses recovered the address/data, DE and Kim do not explicitly disclose recovering the metadata in parallel.
However, Hildebrand discloses recovering the metadata in parallel (Par [0050-0051]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the features as disclosed in Hildebrand into the teaching of DE as modified by Kim in order to improve the system
As per claim 10, Kim discloses the method of claim 9, wherein the first journal and the second journal are replayed by different replayers (Par [0032, 0036, 0064]).
As per claim 16, DE does not explicitly disclose the storage device of claim 11, wherein the storage controller is configured to invalidate the first journal by overwriting the second journal in the buffer memory at a position where the first journal is recorded.
However, Kim discloses wherein the storage controller is configured to invalidate the first journal by overwriting the second journal in the buffer memory at a position where the first journal is recorded (Par [0026, 0029]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the features as disclosed in Kim into the teaching of DE in order to improve the system (Par [0002]).
As per claim 17, Kim discloses the storage device of claim 11, wherein the buffer memory is configured to flush the updated journal data and updated meta data to the non-volatile memory in response to a sudden power off of the storage device (Par [0026, 0029]).
As per claim 18, Kim discloses the storage device of claim 17, wherein the buffer memory comprises a meta buffer configured to store the meta data, and a journal buffer configured to store the journal data, and when the journal buffer is full, the buffer memory is configured to flush the meta data and the journal data to the non-volatile memory (Par [0064]).
As per claim 19, Kim discloses the storage device of claim 17, wherein: the non-volatile memory is configured to provide the journal data and the meta data to the buffer memory when the storage device is turned on, and the storage controller is configured to perform a replay operation for plurality of journals included in the journal data in parallel (Par [0032, 0036, 0064]).
As per claim 20, Kim discloses the storage device of claim 19, wherein the storage controller comprises:
a first replayer and a second replayer configured to perform the replay operation based on the plurality of journals simultaneously (Par [0032, 0056, 0077, 0084]).
Conclusion
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June 27, 2026
/THU N NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2154
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