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.
Claims 1, 2, 4-6, 8-10 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2017/0177242), hereinafter referred to as Park in view of Sekino et al. (US 8,707,096), hereinafter referred to as Sekino.
Referring to claim 1, Park teaches, as claimed, a storage device comprising: a cache; a non-volatile memory; a device interface configured to communicate with a host (i.e.-memory/cache 144; NVM 150; NFC 142; see fig. 1; page 2, ¶39; and page 3, ¶46); and at least one processor operatively coupled with the cache, the non-volatile memory and the device interface (i.e.-processer 134 interconnected with cache 144, NVM 150 and NFC 142, see fig. 1 and page 3, ¶48), wherein the at least one processor is configured to: receive a reset command from the host through the device interface, perform device reset in response to the reset command (i.e.-receive reset request from the host; and in response to reset request, perform a reset operation, page 1, ¶18, lines 8-11; page 9, ¶137), receive a read command (i.e.-receiving a read operation from a host, page 9, ¶135, lines 1-3) for the cache information from the host through the device interface (page 3, ¶46, lines 1-4), and transmit the cache information to the host through the device interface in response to the read command (i.e.-output the read data information to the host, col. 9, ¶135, lines 3-7).
However, Park does not teach determining whether there is cache information related to data remaining in the cache without being stored in the non-volatile memory before the device reset, in a presence of the cache information, transmit information indicating cache loss to the host.
On the other hand, Sekino discloses storage system and data backup method, the storage system being configured to determine whether there is cache information related to data remaining in the cache without being stored in the non-volatile memory (col. 3, lines 41-44 and col. 6, lines 4-7) before the device reset, in a presence of the cache information (col. 7, lines 55-57), transmit information indicating cache loss to the host (col. 7, lines 57-60).
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the teachings of Park and incorporate the step of determining whether there is cache information related to data remaining in the cache without being stored in the non-volatile memory before the device reset, in a presence of the cache information, transmit information indicating cache loss to the host through the device interface, as taught by Sekino. The motivation for doing so would have been to prevent the loss of data in the cache memory by saving/storing into a NVM flash memory.
As to claim 2, the modified park innately teaches the storage device of claim 1, wherein the cache information includes a start address (see Park, page 1, ¶22) and/or a data size related to the data remaining in the cache.
As to claim 4, the modified park teaches the storage device of claim 1, wherein the cache information is stored in an internal memory of the at least one processor (see Park, page 9, ¶128 and ¶130, lines 1-4) or a metadata storage area of the non-volatile memory.
Referring to claims 5, 6 and 8, the claims are substantially the same as claims 1, 2 and 4, hence the rejection of claims 1, 2 and 4 is applied accordingly.
Referring to claims 9, 10 and 12, the claims are substantially the same as claims 1, 2 and 4, hence the rejection of claims 1, 2 and 4 is applied accordingly.
Examiner’s note:
Examiner has cited particular columns and line numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the Applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the Applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passages as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 3, 7 and 11 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. Avraham et al. (2004/0103238), LIU et al. (US 2017/0228154) and Peterson et al. (US 10,346,072) do teach storage systems that are robust under power failure.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELIAS MAMO whose telephone number is (571)270-1726. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thu, 7 AM - 5 PM.
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, HENRY TSAI can be reached at 571-272-4176. 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.
/Elias Mamo/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2184