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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/12/2024 was considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings received on12/12/2024 have been accepted 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 3, 4, 8, 11, 13 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 3, the claimed “magnitude of an influence” is indefinite for being undefined. The term is subjective and lacks objective boundaries. It is not clear what the magnitude claimed in a measure of and it is also not clear what is being referred to as an influence. Clarification is required.
Claim 4, the limitation “equal to or lower than a criterion” is indefinite because the term “criterion” is not properly defined. It is not clear how the criterion is being determined or what it is. Clarification is required.
Claim 8, the limitations drawn to “low level of independence from one another” and “high level of independence from one another” is indefinite because these are relative terms and the metrics of such low or high levels are undefined. Clarification is required.
Claim 11, the limitation “turnoff of power supply is accepted” is indefinite since it is not clear what it is being accepted by and the criteria for acceptance is not known. Clarification is required.
Claim 13, the claimed “minimum number of controllers capable of I/O processing configured to maintain redundancy equal or above a predetermined redundancy” is indefinite because the “minimum number” is a relative term for which the standard of measure is not defined and the “predetermined redundance” is an unspecified term. Clarification is required.
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 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CHO [US 2024/0061591].
Claim 1, CHO discloses a storage system including a storage apparatus [1000, Fig 1] that saves data in accordance with a data input/output request from a host or outputs the saved data [par. 0031], the storage system comprising: a plurality of components each configured to operate in a first power mode or at least one second power mode in a switchable manner [par. 0009], the second power mode consuming less power than the first power mode [par. 0036]; a condition monitoring module that monitors an operating condition of each of the plurality of components [par. 0006, 0033-0034]; and a power mode control module that determines a power mode of at least one particular component to be the second power mode [20, par. 0030], according to a processing load which is related to each of the plurality of components and which corresponds to a result of monitoring by the condition monitoring module [counting idle time, par. 0036], and operates the at least one particular component in the power saving mode [low power mode, par. 0036], wherein a combination of the power modes is determined based on power amount consumed by a combination of the power modes of the plurality of components [par. 0089-0091].
Claim 16 is rejected using the same rationale as Claim 1.
Claim 2, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of components are a plurality of devices that control data input/output processing between the storage system and the host, the storage system further includes at least one controller that is equipped with the plurality of devices and that controls the data input/output processing between the storage system and the host, and the controller includes the condition monitoring module, and the power mode control module [see par. 0030-0034].
Claim 3, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 2, wherein the power mode control module includes a power mode determination module that determines the power mode of the particular component operating in the first power mode among the plurality of devices to be the second power mode according to a magnitude of an influence, on the data input/output processing, of a change of the power mode of the particular component to the second power mode, and a power mode change module that switches the power mode of the particular component to the second power mode determined [determining if switching to low power mode affects performance by checking recent access, par. 0034-0036, 0040-0041].
Claim 4, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 3, further comprising: a device management table that manages information related to the plurality of devices; and a device operation history table that manages operating conditions of the plurality of devices monitored by the condition monitoring module, wherein the power mode determination module determines the power mode of the particular component to be the second power mode in a case of determining, for the plurality of device managed in the device management table, that the influence, on the data input/output processing, of a change of the power mode of the particular component to the second power mode is equal to or lower than a criterion, according to the operating conditions of the plurality of devices managed in the device operation history table [par. 0033-0036].
Claim 5, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 4, wherein the device management table manages power consumption and processing capability in each of the first power mode and the second power mode for each group of the plurality of devices, and the power mode control module determines the power mode of the particular component to be the second power mode and changes the power mode of the particular component to the second power mode according to the power consumption and processing capability in each of the first power mode and the second power mode for each group of the plurality of devices managed in the device management table [par. 0037, 0089-0091].
Claim 6, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 4, wherein the device management table manages a power control unit that defines a first category in which control of the power mode for the plurality of devices is performed independently of control of the power mode for other devices and a second category in which control of the power mode for the plurality of devices is performed in combination with control of the power mode for other devices [par. 0033-0036, 0089-0091].
Claim 7, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 6, wherein the device management table manages, as the power control unit, a device unit including devices independent of the other devices in terms of power consumption, a connection destination unit including devices for which the power mode is to be changed in line with the other devices, and a controller unit including a controller group in which each group of a plurality of the controllers is to provide substantially similar performance [par. 0030-0034, 0041].
Claim 8, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 5, wherein the power mode control module classifies the plurality of devices into devices that are subjected to grouping and that have a low level of independence from one another in terms of control of power consumption of the plurality of devices [par. 0062, 0064-0066] and devices that are not subjected to grouping and that have a high level of independence from one another in terms of control of power consumption of the plurality of devices [par. 0063, 0067], and switches the power mode to the second power saving mode for the devices that are subjected to the grouping and for the devices that are not subjected to the grouping, according to a result of monitoring by the condition monitoring module [par. 0033-0034 and 0089-0091].
Claim 9, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 8, wherein the power mode control module classifies, in a case where there are a plurality of devices for which the grouping is enabled, the devices into a first device group in which a manner of changing the power mode is to be the same for the plurality of devices subjected to the grouping and a second device group in which the manner of changing the power mode need not be the same for the plurality of devices subjected to the grouping, and for the first device group, changes the power modes of the devices to the same changed power mode [par. 0062-0067].
Claim 10, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 8, wherein the power mode control module classifies the devices into devices that accept power-OFF as the second power mode and devices that do not accept power-OFF as the second power mode, and for the devices that accept power-OFF as the second power mode, switches the power mode to power-OFF depending on a result of monitoring by the condition monitoring module, while switching, for the devices that do not accept power-OFF as the second power mode, the power mode to the second power mode depending on the result of monitoring by the condition monitoring module [par. 0037, 0046, 0054].
Claim 11, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 1, wherein the power mode control module, for a plurality of the particular components, in a case where a predicted value of a future processing load is zero and turnoff of power supply is accepted, determines all power modes of the plurality of particular components to be power-OFF when the plurality of particular components need to be unified [par. 0034-0036 and 0049-0051].
Claim 12, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of components are a plurality of controllers that control the data input/output processing between the storage system and the host, and include a management terminal that controls the plurality of controllers, and the management terminal includes the condition monitoring module, and the power mode control module [par. 0030, 0088-0091].
Claim 13, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 12, wherein the plurality of controllers consist of a minimum number of controllers capable of I/O processing configured to maintain redundancy equal or above a predetermined redundancy and a processing load equal or below a predetermined processing load value [par. 0034-0036].
Claim 14, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 12, wherein the power mode control module selects, based on a redundancy setting, a power mode configured to transfer to a state where input/output processing is performed on another controller immediately after the fault, in response to a detection of a fault caused in any one of the plurality of controllers [0049-0051 and 0074-0075].
Claim 15, CHO discloses the storage system according to claim 14, wherein the power mode control module operates a first portion of CPU (Central Processing Unit) cores equipped with multiple cores, and a second portion of the CPU cores in a standby state while allowing the another controller to transfer to the state where input/output processing can be performed [par. 0034-0037 and 0062-0067].
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Liang et al. [US 11,966,272]; Storage Device Deep Idle Power Mode. See Abstract.
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/MIDYS ROJAS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2133