DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is sent in response to Applicant’s Communication received 07/29/24 for application number 18/787,944. The Office hereby acknowledges receipt of the following and placed of record in file: Specification, Drawings, Abstract, Oath/Declaration, IDS, and Claims.
The Preliminary Amendment filed 08/12/24 is acknowledged. Claim 1 is amended, and Claims 2-20 are newly added. Thus, Claims 1-20 are pending.
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Objections
Claims 11 and 14 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 11, lines 7-9 recite, “sending a command to a power management unit to power gate the core, wherein the power management unit is connected to a plurality of cores; and disabling, by the core power management unit, power gating of the core.” (emphasis added) As line 8 introduces “a plurality of cores,” amendments as to the subsequent references to “the core,” such as in lines 9, 11, and 14 may better clarify the claims as presented.
Claim 14, which depends on Claim 11, similarly makes reference to “the core,” and is objected to accordingly. Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-10 and 20 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.
Claim 1, lines 2-5 recite, “one or more cores, each core including a core power management unit; and a power management unit connected to the one or more cores and to each core power management unit, wherein power gating of a first core is cooperatively executed by the power management unit.” As each core includes a core power management unit, it is unclear whether the power management unit is connected to each of the core power management units separately in addition to the connection it already has with the core, or whether the connection of the power management unit to each core also serves as the connection of the power management unit to each core power management unit.
For the purposes of examination, the limitation is interpreted to require separate connections from the power management unit to the core and to the core power management unit, as reflected in Fig. 5.
Claims 2-10 depend on Claim 1, but do not appear to clarify the connection, and are rejected accordingly.
Claim 20, lines 1-3 recite, “One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media storing instructions that, upon execution on a system that includes cores, a core power management unit for a core of the cores, and a power management unit for the cores, cause operations comprising: enabling, by the core power management unit, power gating of the core.” (emphasis added) It is unclear which of the cores introduced is being referenced by the phrase “the core” in lines 1-4 as well as the remainder of the claim, as there are multiple mentions of “a core,” “cores,” and “the cores.”
For the purposes of examination, “the core” is interpreted to refer to the initial “a core of the cores.”
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11 and 14 would be allowed once the outstanding claim objections were overcome.
Claims 12, 13, and 15-19 are objected to as being dependent upon an objected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claims 1-10 and 20 would be allowed once the outstanding rejections under 35 USC 112(b) were overcome.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Koski et al., US 2019/0089244 A1, discloses a processing system comprising: one or more cores, each core including a core power management unit; and a power management unit connected to the one or more cores and to each core power management unit, wherein power gating of a first core is cooperatively executed by the power management unit, a first core power management unit associated with the first core, and software, and wherein, for enabling power gating of the first core, the first core power management unit associated with the core is configured to: receive a power gating command from the software to power gate the first core [core-specific power management and control such as powering down of individual processor cores, via rail switches 606-1 through 606-n, Fig. 6; par 75].
Browne et al., US 2016/0306416 A1, discloses a command to the power management unit to power gate the first core; and wherein, for disabling power gating of the first core, the first core power management unit associated with the core is configured to: send a command to the power management unit to disable the power gating and power on the first core [monitoring activity levels of each core and placing cores into low power consumption states when the queue is deactivated and empty, par 32].
Song, US 9,467,120 B1, discloses sending a command to the power management unit to disable the power gating and power on the first core in response to receiving a wake signal [wake request are able to trigger ungating, col. 11, ll. 15-20].
However, none of the references, individually nor in combination, explicitly teach wherein, for enabling power gating of the first core, the first core power management unit associated with the core is configured to: enable a master bus blocker and a slave bus blocker associated with the first core; and wherein, for disabling power gating of the first core, the first core power management unit associated with the core is configured to: disable the master bus blocker in response to a powering on signal from the power management unit; send a signal to the software to reboot the first core with a warm reset; and disable the slave bus blocker in response to a booting complete signal from the software, in combination with the remaining limitations as required by Claim 1.
Claims 11 and 20 recite limitations similar to those of Claim 1, and are allowed accordingly, subject to the respective claim objection and rejection under 35 USC 112(b).
Claims 2-10 and 12-19 depend on Claims 1 and 11, respectively, and are allowed over the prior art accordingly, subject to the respective claim objection and rejection under 35 USC 112(b).
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
Applicant is reminded that in amending a response to a rejection of claims, the patentable novelty must be clearly shown in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited and the objections made. Applicant must also show how the amendments avoid such references and objections. See 37 CFR §1.111(c).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PAUL J YEN whose telephone number is (571)270-5047. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5 PT.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrew J Jung can be reached at (571) 270-3779. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Paul Yen/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2175
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