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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending.
NOTE:
It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art reference and any interpretations of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references cited in the information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on December 12, 2024 have been considered by the examiner.
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 7 and 17 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claims 7 and 17 recites the term “the read pointer controller.” There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1-4,9, 10-14, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi et. al. U.S. Patent Pub No. 2023/0176772 (hereinafter Choi) in view of Kwon et. al. US Patent Pub No. 2025/0378031 (hereinafter Kwon).
Regarding Claim 1, Choi teaches a memory system coupled to at least one memory device and comprising a processor and a memory coupled to the processor (Fig.1, 7;Para7-8 "The memory controller may include a buffer, a prefetch controller, and a boot controller."), the memory storing program instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: receive data output from the memory device based on a speculative read request input from a host (Fig.7; Para7-8 "The prefetch controller may be configured to, before a target input/output request is received from the host after the booting operation starts, read expected data corresponding to the expected input/output request from the plurality of memory devices based on the workload information, and store the expected data in the buffer" Para127-132 "The prefetch controller 220 may store the read expected data in the buffer 210." prefetch corresponds to speculative read); and output first data among the data stored in the read buffer to the host, the first data which is stored in the read buffer based on the speculative read request and linked to a read request input from the host after the speculative read request (Fig.7,9; Para127-135 "The boot controller 230 may process the target input/output request by providing target data, stored in the plurality of memory devices 100 or the buffer 210, to the host 300, the target data corresponding to the target input/output request." Para148-156).
However, Choi fails to teach but Kwon teaches store the received data in a read buffer based on information about a residual time input along with the speculative read request (Fig.2,4,8; Para12-20 "determine a prefetch time point, which is a time point at which the prefetch data is prefetched to the host device, based on the request time information and a transmission latency received from the host device" Para27-28,108-112).
Choi and Kwon are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor. They both relate to data management in a storage system.
Therefore, before the effective filling date of claimed invention was made, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the above method, as taught by Choi, and incorporating the residual time, as taught by Kwon.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this modification in order to utilize more efficient approach of data management, as suggested by Kwon (Para2-6).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Choi and Kwon teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Further, Choi teaches wherein the read buffer is configured to temporarily store data which is read and output from the at least one memory device based on the speculative read request and the read request(Fig.7,9; Para127-135,Para148-156).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Choi and Kwon teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Further, Kwon teaches wherein the read buffer is configured to: store second data which is read from the memory device based on the speculative read request but not linked to the read request input from the host; release the second data based on the residual time after stored in the read buffer; and store third data which is read from the memory device based on the read request and input to and output from the read buffer by a first in first out (FIFO) way(Fig.2,4,8; Para12-20 "determine a prefetch time point, which is a time point at which the prefetch data is prefetched to the host device, based on the request time information and a transmission latency received from the host device" Para27-28,108-112).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Choi and Kwon teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Further, Choi teaches comprising a hazard control unit configured to: perform a control hazard operation that transmits or schedules a read command to the memory device based on the speculative read request or the read request, and perform a data hazard operation that receives at least one data corresponding to the read command from the memory device and manages the at least one data to be output to the host(Fig.7,9; Para11-20 "the prefetch support circuit of the host device according to an aspect of the disclosure may be further configured to, when a cache hit occurs, transmit cache hit information and the prefetch information to the memory expanding device through the root complex"Para127-135,Para148-156).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Choi and Kwon teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Further, Kwon teaches wherein the information about the residual time comprises at least one of: a first value indicating the residual time; and a second value indicating an increase or decrease from a reference value which is set by the host(Fig.2,4,8; Para12-20 "determine a prefetch time point, which is a time point at which the prefetch data is prefetched to the host device, based on the request time information and a transmission latency received from the host device" Para27-28,108-112).
Regarding claims 10-14,19, and 20, the combination of Choi and Kwon teaches these claims according to the reasoning set forth in claim 1-4, and 9.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8, 15-18 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 , listed on form PTO-892, and not relied upon, if any, is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
BenHanokh et al. US. 2022/0214832 teaches prefetch request with time-to-read (TTR) estimate for metadata.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TASNIMA MATIN whose telephone number is (571)272-8785. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9-5.
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, Jared Rutz can be reached on 571-272-5535. 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.
TASNIMA . MATIN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2135
/TASNIMA MATIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2135