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 § 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gustafsson et al (Patent #US 6701429 B1) and further in view of Liao et al (Patent # US 7743191 B1).
Regarding claim 1, Gustafsson discloses semaphore setting device (system described in paragraph 22, including an arbitration unit), comprising: and a read setting circuit (arbitration unit executing semaphore lock and unlocked, paragraph 22) configured to determine whether the at least one semaphore is occupied (locked, paragraph 22) according to the at least one address when receiving a read request (read instruction, paragraph 22; note an address indicating location for the read instruction is implied), wherein if the read setting circuit determines that the at least one semaphore is unoccupied (free, or unlocked, paragraph 22), the read setting circuit returns an unoccupied signal (reports a successful “take” operation, paragraph 22), and sets the at least one semaphore to be occupied (locked by the requesting processor once taken; paragraph 22).
Gustafsson does not disclose explicitly a mapping circuit. However, Liao discloses a mapping circuit (address mapped semaphores, paragraph 57), configured to map at least one semaphore of a plurality of semaphores (a plurality of semaphores) to at least one address of a plurality of addresses (mapped to distinct word addresses corresponding to one independent hardware semaphore resource, paragraph 57). Furthermore, teachings of Gustafsson and Liao are from the same field of instruction synchronization through the use of semaphores.
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the invention for a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine teachings of Gustafsson with Liao by using semaphore mapping for the benefit of tracking the usage of semaphores.
Regarding claim 2, the above combination discloses semaphore setting device of claim 1, wherein the read setting circuit reads a setting value of the at least one address to determine whether the at least one semaphore is occupied when receiving the read request (“locked” is implicitly represented as some binary value in the computer, could be a single bit, or byte sized depending on the system design), wherein if the setting value of the at least one address comprises a low level value, the read setting circuit determines that the at least one semaphore is unoccupied, and returns the unoccupied signal (“responds with information about whether or not the semaphore is locked”, paragraph 22, Gustafsson; examiner notes using “0” and “1” to denote binary states, such as true or false, was well-known in the art; and would have been an obvious design choice for a person of ordinary skill in the art given prior art’s teachings of using semaphores”; an “0” can represent “locked”, and “1” can represent “unlocked”; or vice versa).
Regarding claim 3, the above combination discloses semaphore setting device of claim 2, wherein the read setting circuit sets the setting value of the at least one address to be a high level value to set the at least one semaphore to be occupied (similar to claim 2 above; examiner notes using “0” and “1” to denote binary states, such as true or false, was well-known in the art; and would have been an obvious design choice for a person of ordinary skill in the art given prior art’s teachings of using semaphores”; an “0” can represent “locked”, and “1” can represent “unlocked”; or vice versa).
Regarding claim 4, the above combination discloses semaphore setting device of claim 1, wherein if the read setting circuit determines that the at least one semaphore is occupied, the read setting circuit returns an occupied signal (responds with information about whether or not the semaphore is “locked”, paragraph 22, Gustafsson).
Regarding claim 5, the above combination discloses semaphore setting device of claim 4, wherein the read setting circuit reads a setting value of the at least one address to determine whether the at least one semaphore is occupied when receiving the read request, wherein if the setting value of the at least one address comprises a high level value, the read setting circuit determines that the at least one semaphore is occupied, and returns the occupied signal (similar to claim 2 above; examiner notes using “0” and “1” to denote binary states, such as true or false, was well-known in the art; and would have been an obvious design choice for a person of ordinary skill in the art given prior art’s teachings of using semaphores”; an “0” can represent “locked”, and “1” can represent “unlocked”; or vice versa)..
Regarding claim 6, the above combination discloses semaphore setting device of claim 1, further comprising: a write setting circuit, coupled to the mapping circuit, and configured to set the at least one semaphore to be unoccupied according to the at least one address when receiving a write request (write instruction, paragraph 23, Gustafsson).
Regarding claim 7, the above combination discloses semaphore setting device of claim 6, wherein the write setting circuit writes a low level value to the at least one address to set the at least one semaphore to be unoccupied when receiving the write request (similar to claim 2 above; examiner notes using “0” and “1” to denote binary states, such as true or false, was well-known in the art; and would have been an obvious design choice for a person of ordinary skill in the art given prior art’s teachings of using semaphores”; an “0” can represent “locked”, and “1” can represent “unlocked”; or vice versa)..
Regarding claim 8, the above combination discloses semaphore setting device of claim 1, further comprising: a status query circuit, configured to query whether the at least one semaphore is occupied according to at least one temporary storage value corresponding to the at least one semaphore (a serialization or arbitration unit associated with the semaphore register responds with information about whether or not that semaphore is "locked", paragraph 22, Gustafsson), wherein if the status query circuit determines that the at least one semaphore is unoccupied, the status query circuit returns the unoccupied signal (respond with the information, paragraph Gustafsson).
Regarding claim 9, the above combination discloses semaphore setting device of claim 8, wherein if the status query circuit determines that the at least one semaphore is occupied, the status query circuit returns an occupied signal (“locked”, paragraph 22).
Regarding claim 10, the above combination discloses semaphore setting device of claim 1, wherein the mapping circuit is further configured to map each of the plurality of semaphores to a corresponding address of the plurality of addresses respectively (paragraph 57, Liao), wherein the read setting circuit is further configured to determine whether a corresponding semaphore of the plurality of semaphore is occupied according to the corresponding address when receiving the read request (determine the value of the semaphore as 0 or 1, paragraph 57), wherein if the read setting circuit determines that the corresponding semaphore is unoccupied, the read setting circuit returns the unoccupied signal (read return 0, paragraph 57), and sets the corresponding semaphore to be occupied (sets the semaphore to 1, paragraph 57), wherein if the read setting circuit determines that the corresponding semaphore is occupied, the read setting circuit returns an occupied signal (returns a value of 1, paragraph 57, Liao).
Regarding claims 11-20, examiner notes that these claims are substantially similar to claims 1-10 above. The same grounds of rejection are applied.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SCOTT C SUN whose telephone number is (571)272-2675. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 12-8:30 PM.
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/SCOTT C SUN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2181