DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims:
Claims 1 – 5 are pending.
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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
As per claims 1 – 4, the language is drawn to a computer program which is neither executed by
a computer, nor stored on a physical structure.
Claim 1 is directed to a node which contains no physical structure such as an apparatus or
any hardware implementations. The specification does not mention any hardware implementations for the
claimed elements. Since none of the claimed elements of the claim are necessarily hardware elements
rather than the software embodiments, at least one embodiment of the claimed invention includes the
apparatus existing as software per se. Software per se is not included in any of the four statutory classes.
See MPEP §2106 (citing Gottschalk V. Benson, 409 US 63, 72 (1972)). As result, claim 1 is directed
towards non-statutory patent matter.
Claims 2 – 4 are rejected under the same rationale as claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 – 4 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the 101 rejection.
Claim 5 is allowed.
Reasons for allowance
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
In interpreting the claims, in light of the specification and the claims filed on September 10, 2024, the Examiner finds the claimed invention to be patentably distinct from the available prior art(s).
With regards to the independent claims, the available prior art(s) does/do not teach, singly or in
combination, “when said head flit is at the front of the VC FIFO buffer, requesting from a virtual channel allocation (VA) function an exit port from which the packet flits will exit the source node, based on path information contained in the head flit, and further including a next hop exit port from which the packet flits will exit a next node in the path from the source node to the destination node, assigning a VC FIFO buffer for an input port in the next node in the path from the source node to the destination node via a next-hop VC allocation table (NVT), wherein said NVT encodes an available VC FIFO buffer to use in the next node for all packets identified as part of the flow of packets.”
The closest available prior art to the subject matter, Maxon et al. (US 12332309), teaches sending packet flits through a FIFO virtual channel buffer using a routing table. The prior art however fails to teach when said head flit is at the front of the VC FIFO buffer, requesting from a virtual channel allocation (VA) function an exit port from which the packet flits will exit the source node, based on path information contained in the head flit, and further including a next hop exit port from which the packet flits will exit a next node in the path from the source node to the destination node, assigning a VC FIFO buffer for an input port in the next node in the path from the source node to the destination node via a next-hop VC allocation table (NVT), wherein said NVT encodes an available VC FIFO buffer to use in the next node for all packets identified as part of the flow of packets.
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 NAZIA NAOREEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7282. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:00 - 6:00.
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, Umar Cheema can be reached at 571-270-3037. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/NAZIA NAOREEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2458