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 .
Claims 1-20 are now pending in the application under prosecution and have been examined.
In the response to this Office action, the Examiner respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the Examiner in prosecuting this application.
Examiner cites particular columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims below for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 04/16/2026, with respect to claim 1-8 and 14-21 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of claims 1-8 and 14-21 has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed 04/16/2026 with respect to claims 9-13 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Claim 9 recites:
A method, comprising: receiving, at a device, a request from an application executing on a processor to access a data stored on a storage device; determining, by the device, whether the data is stored on a first storage or a second storage of the storage device; and using, by the device, a cache program associated with the application to manage the data on the first storage and the second storage of the storage device.
Applicant argues that
First, despite the Office Action asserting to the contrary, Ishizaki does not appear to teach that the cache control function of the storage control program is associated with an application. Ishizaki appears to use the same storage control program for managing all data, without regard to any individual application. The claims, in contrast, are directed to different cache programs associated with different applications.
Claim 9 does not require “different cache programs associated with different applications,” in contrast to applicant’s assertion, but a cache program associated with the application to manage the data on the first storage and the second storage of the storage device.
In the telephone interview on March 9, it was discussed that the claims need further amendment to recite “different cache programs associated with different applications, i.e., a different cache program used in different application”. US20150220280 (ISHIBZAKI) teaches local memory management function including cache control function to manage storage areas of high-speed storage and low-speed storage as upper and lower tiers, respectively, using the tier management function, i.e. controlling the entire tiered storage system. [See Par. 0038; Par. 0034; Par. 0045-0048].
With respect to claim 11, ISHIBZAKI teaches storage control program referring to entries volume management table that includes the searched physical volume the storage management access information to execute request in either tier storage. [See Par. 0051-0053; Par. 0103-0105]
With respect to claim 11, ISHIBZAKI teaches storage control program loaded on local memory with the CPU to execute the storage control program managing change in storage management table and updating the change in management table; storage management table including entries used to hold information that indicates which storage area of which physical volume corresponds to a storage area in a logical volume constructed in the tiered storage system. [See Par. 0051-0053; Par. 0092-0094; Par. 0103-0105.]
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 9-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by US20150220280 (ISHIBZAKI).
With respect to claim 9, ISHIZAKI teaches storage device featuring method, comprising: receiving, at a device, a request from an application executing on a processor to access a data stored on a storage device (program codes of storage control program loaded on local memory and executed by CPU to access data stored on storage memory) [Par. 0041-0042]; determining, by the device, whether the data is stored on a first storage or a second storage of the storage device (determining, using logical storage management characteristics , which storage device hold requested data) [Par. 0055; Par. 0071-0073] ; and using, by the device, a cache program associated with the application to manage the data on the first storage and the second storage of the storage device (program codes of storage control program loaded on local memory 134 with the CPU 136 to execute the storage control program, stored in local memory management function including cache control function) [Par. 0046; Par. 0034-0037].
With respect to claim 10, ISHIZAKI teaches storage device featuring method, wherein determining, by the device, whether the data is stored on the first storage or the second storage of the storage device (storage management table including entries used to hold information that indicates which storage area of which physical volume corresponds to a storage area in a logical volume constructed in the tiered storage system ) [Par. 0052-0053] includes: fetching, by a fetching unit of the device, an instruction of the cache program from a storage medium; and executing, by an execution unit of the device, the instruction (referring to entries volume management table that includes the searched physical volume the storage management access information to execute request in either tier storage) [[Par. 0051-0052; Par. 0103-0105].
With respect to claim 11, ISHIZAKI teaches storage device featuring method, wherein: determining, by the device, whether the data is stored on the first storage or the second storage of the storage device (storage management table including entries used to hold information that indicates which storage area of which physical volume corresponds to a storage area in a logical volume constructed in the tiered storage system ) [Par. 0052-0053] includes determining, by the device, that the data is stored on the first storage; and using, by the device, the cache program associated with the application to manage the data on the first storage and the second storage of the storage device includes updating a metadata of the data (using the storage control program loaded on local memory with the CPU to execute the storage control program managing change in storage management table and updating the change in management table) [Par. 0051-0052; Par. 0092-0094; Par. 0103-0105].
With respect to claim 12, ISHIZAKI teaches storage device featuring method, wherein using, by the device, the cache program associated with the application to manage the data on the first storage and the second storage of the storage device further includes issuing, by the device, a second request to access the data to a data controller of the storage device (managing access by searching the storage management table for an entry associated the request and further manage whether the search returns a match to designate a replication from the source) [Par. 0130-035; Par. 0106-0108].
With respect to claim 13, ISHIZAKI teaches storage device featuring method, further comprising sending, by the data controller, a response to the application executing on the processor (controller controlling data transfer from and to host in response to a request of data access and supplying a response to the data access request) [Par. 0041-0042].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-8 are allowed.
Claims 14-21 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20200387448 A1 (THOMASSON et al) teaching: a first read request for data stored at a non-volatile memory is received by a primary storage controller; the data is programmed from the non-volatile memory to a first cache of the primary storage controller, the first cache to store the data over a first time range; second read request is received for the data where, in response to receiving the second read request for the data, the data is programmed to a second cache to store the data over a second time range that is greater than the first time range; a notification is transmitted to a secondary storage controller, the notification including information associated with the programming of the data to the second cache.
US 20190095204 A1 (ZBICIAK et al) teaching stream of data accessed from a memory system using a stream of addresses generated in a first mode of operating a streaming engine in response to executing a first stream instruction, a block cache management operation performed on a cache in the memory using a block of addresses generated in a second mode of operating the streaming engine in response to executing a second stream instruction.
US 20230236977 A1 (DEV et al) teaching instructions which, if performed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to at least: select the one or more cache policies based, at least in part, on one or more types of operations associated with a portion of the one or more neural networks, application comprising or utilizing code including to application code, runtime code, or operating system code that interacts with said processor to cause it to switch to a cache policy selected by said application.
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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PIERRE MICHEL BATAILLE whose telephone number is (571)272-4178. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 7-6 ET.
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, Kenneth LO can be reached at (571) 272-9774. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PIERRE MICHEL BATAILLE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2136
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