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
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 10-11, 17-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Offen [20150178091], in view of save [WO 2023177408 A1].
As to claim 1,
Offen [20150178091] teaches 1. A method of saving a system memory management unit (SMMU) context for a system, comprising: initializing a stored content of a plurality of configuration registers for the component [0018: “context save latency is reduced by restoring only those context registers with saved state that differs from the reset value of registers. A system agent monitors access to the design blocks and sets a dirty bit to indicate which design block has registers that have changed since the last context save. During a context save operation, the system agent bypasses design blocks that have not had context changes since the latest context save operation, and only saves context registers for design blocks that have changed context. ”- reset initializes]; identifying a subset of the plurality of configuration registers whose stored content has changed during a monitoring period that begins following the initializing and ends at a start of a transition of the system to a non-retention state in which the stored content for the plurality of configuration registers is lost [0018: “A system agent monitors access to the design blocks and sets a dirty bit to indicate which design block has registers that have changed since the last context save. During a context save operation, the system agent bypasses design blocks that have not had context changes since the latest context save operation, and only saves context registers for design blocks that have changed context. In one embodiment, the system agent marks a bit-field for each context register that is changed to a value that differs from the reset value of the register.” And 0017: “Additionally, context save and restore latency can be particularly high for design blocks that lose context information during deep sleep states. ”]; and writing a content of the subset of the plurality of configuration registers to an image in a system memory after an end of the monitoring period [0018: “During a context save operation, the system agent bypasses design blocks that have not had context changes since the latest context save operation, and only saves context registers for design blocks that have changed context.” And 0041: “ In one exemplary embodiment, the memory access units 564 include a load unit, a store address unit, and a store data unit, each of which is coupled to the data TLB unit 572 in the memory unit 570”- data is saved for restoration is written in the non-volatile memory and data written in address form is equivalent to image address]
But, does not explicitly teach writing in the SMMU in the memory.
However, Save [WO 2023177408 A1] teaches writing in the SMMU image in the memory [0022: “The computing device 100 includes a save-restore engine (SRE) 102. The SRE 102 is configured to save, in an isolated local memory 106, configuration data, e.g., status data and configuration data, for an AC component or other registers, e.g., the AC component 112, located in a power domain 150 affected by a power collapse event.” And 0006: “The SRE is configured to use an isolated local memory that has an always-on or standby power rail during power collapse events. The isolation of the local memory protects the configuration data from access by untrusted components on the SoC. In addition, the isolation of the local memory makes it safe from compromised application software. ” and 0084: “a computing device can include a generic module or client device that has a respective generic AC component, e.g., an SMMU. Because it can be difficult or impossible to adapt the AC component to support the save and restore operations for the SRE, the computing device 100 can include a widget, e.g., a generic save-restore widget 500, to help support the save and restore operations for the SRE.”]
It would have been obvious to person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine teaching of offen and save because both are directed to saving data. Furthermore, Save improves upon Offen by being able to write the data in SMMU memory component such that data can be restored later on efficiently.
As to claim 2,
Save teaches comprising encrypting the SMMU image prior to writing the SMMU image to the system memory [0031: “As another example, the isolated local memory 106 can include a DRAM that can be used to save and restore the configuration data of the AC component, and the system can protect the configuration data stored in the DRAM against potential tampering using cryptographic methods, such as authentication through encryption/decryption, anti-replay protection, and so on.”].
As to claim 3,
Save teaches writing the SMMU image to the system memory comprises writing the SMMU image to a data authentication and encryption portion of the system memory [0031: “As another example, the isolated local memory 106 can include a DRAM that can be used to save and restore the configuration data of the AC component, and the system can protect the configuration data stored in the DRAM against potential tampering using cryptographic methods, such as authentication through encryption/decryption, anti-replay protection, and so on. ”].
.
As to claim 10-11,
Combination of offen and Save teach this claim according to the reasoning set forth in claim 1-2 supra.
As to claim 17, Combination of offen and Save teach this claim according to the reasoning set forth in claim 1supra. Furthermore, Offen teach an driver configured to set a bit [ 0018: “In one embodiment, the system agent marks a bit-field for each context register that is changed to a value that differs from the reset value of the register.”.” ”- it would be obvious to integrate system agent to SMMU such that bit for each of the register can be marked for efficient operation]
As to claim 18,
Combination of offen and Save teach this claim according to the reasoning set forth in claim 2 supra.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4-9 and 12-16, 19-20 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KESHAB R PANDEY whose telephone number is (571)270-0176. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00(ET).
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/KESHAB R PANDEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2176
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