DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the reply filed on 12/29/2025.
Claims 1 and 3-11 are pending in the application and have been examined.
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 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ganapathy (U.S. Publication 2003/0163679).
Regarding claim 9, Ganapathy discloses an instruction fetching method, comprising: receiving and caching instructions [Fig. 7; paragraph 0080], performing detection of loop body flag instructions on the received instructions [paragraph 0080; the system detects a loop control instruction]; and sending loop body instructions and non-loop body instructions in the received instructions to a decoding unit in a time-sharing manner according to a detection result, so as to allow the decoding unit to decode the received instructions [paragraphs 0076-0080; loop and non-loop instructions are sent to be decoded; when a loop control instruction is detected, loop body instructions are sent for decoding from a loop buffer; when a loop control instruction is not detected, non-loop body instructions are sent for decoding], wherein the loop body flag instructions carry a target number of loops of the loop body instructions [paragraph 0080; the loop control instruction specifies the number of times a loop is to be repeated], and the instruction fetch unit cyclically sends the loop body instructions to the decoding unit according to the target number of loops [paragraph 0080; the fetch unit sends loop body instructions to the decoder until the loop has executed the specified number of times], wherein sending the loop body instruction and the non-loop body instructions in the received instructions to the decoding unit in the time-sharing manner comprises: cyclically sending the loop body instructions to the decoding unit according to the target number of loops [paragraphs 0076-0080; loop and non-loop instructions are sent to be decoded; when a loop control instruction is detected, loop body instructions are sent for decoding from a loop buffer; when a loop control instruction is not detected, non-loop body instructions are sent for decoding]; and sending the non-loop body instructions to the decoding unit when sending of the loop body instruction is stopped [paragraphs 0076-0080; loop and non-loop instructions are sent to be decoded; when a loop control instruction is detected, loop body instructions are sent for decoding from a loop buffer; when a loop control instruction is not detected, non-loop body instructions are sent for decoding].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 3-8, and 10-11 are allowed.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/COREY S FAHERTY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2183
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