DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
Claims 1 – 20 are pending.
Claims 1, 8, and 16 are independent.
This office action is Non-Final.
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 § 102
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 – 4, 7, 16 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Banerjee et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0075408, hereinafter “Banerjee”).
As per claim 1, Banerjee teaches a control unit [power manager 105, 0036] for controlling processing transitions at a plurality of compute units, the control unit comprising:
a request analysis component [power manager control 205, 0036] to receive, from a first compute unit [cores 110, fig.2 , 0036], a request to transition from a first performance state to a second performance state [0036: To request permission to enter or exit power-down modes, each of the cores 110 may independently and in parallel request a token from the power manager 105 by asserting the signaling REQ 206…0028: power-down modes may include adjusting the operating voltages and frequencies of the cores] in accordance with a first transition setting and to determine the number of compute units [0031: By utilizing the inrush current information associated with the entering and exiting of the various power-down modes, the power manager 105 may determine a number and an order of the cores 110 to be selected for entering or exiting the power-down modes efficiently without causing excessive inrush current. ] permitted to transition from the first performance state to the second performance state in accordance with the first transition setting, where the first transition setting is to define a transition rate for the transition [0031: By utilizing the inrush current information associated with the entering and exiting of the various power-down modes, the power manager 105 may determine a number and an order of the cores 110 to be selected for entering or exiting the power-down modes efficiently without causing excessive inrush current];
a control unit [power manager 105, 0040] configured to provide, to the first compute unit, permission for the first compute unit to transition in accordance with the first transition setting responsive to a determination that the first compute unit would not exceed a
threshold number of compute units permitted to transition in accordance with the
first transition setting [0040: At T.sub.0, one or more of the cores 110 request a token to enter or to exit power-down modes by asserting (e.g., pulling high) the signaling REQ 206. At T.sub.1, the power manager 105 (e.g., the power manager control 205) issues a token to the selected core or cores 110 by asserting (e.g., pulling high) the signaling ACK 207. , 0046: the selection of cores 110 allows for granting the maximum number of requests from the highest priority cores 110 (e.g., the cores 110 requesting to enter or to exit the power-down modes of highest priorities) within the inrush current budget.].
As per claim 2, Banerjee teaches the control unit of claim 1, where the control unit is configured to, responsive to a determination that the first compute unit would exceed the threshold number, withhold permission from the first compute unit to cause the first compute unit to transition in accordance with a second transition setting [0045: core requests that may exceed inrush current budget are not granted].
As per claim 3, Banerjee teaches the control unit of claim 1, where the control unit comprises a counter to track the number of compute units permitted to transition in accordance with the first setting [0044: core selections].
As per claim 4, Banerjee teaches the control unit of claim 3, where the counter is incremented when a compute unit is provided with permission [0039, 0044: in order to grant the requests to enter or to exit the power-down modes quickly, the power manager control 205 may fast-track the selection of cores 110 for granting requests independent of the power-down modes. In some examples, the power manager control 205 may select the cores based on predetermine priorities not based on the power-down modes].
As per claim 7, Banerjee teaches the control unit of claim 1, where the control unit comprises a hardware unit [0049: the power manager control 205 and may include various (e.g., hardware and/or software) components…].
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Banerjee et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0075408, hereinafter “Banerjee”), in view of Rotem et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0204893, hereinafter “Rotem”).
As per claim 5, Banerjee teaches the control unit of claim 4. However, Banerjee does not teach “…where the permission comprises a validity duration…”.
Rotem is cited to teach dynamic power management of cores operating in turbo mode. Both Banerjee and Rotem are directed to power management of cores.
As per claim 5, Rotem further teaches …where the permission comprises a validity duration [0128: time duration of higher operation is set].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Banerjee with Rotem, as Rotem improves Banerjee by explicitly teaching how to dynamically adjust cores duration is higher operation mode (i.e. turbo mode).
As per claim 6, Rotem teaches the control unit of claim 5, comprising a timer initiated responsive to providing the permission and where the counter is decremented responsive to the timer reaching a specified value [0128: time duration is set, but may be reduced].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 81 – 15, and 18 – 20 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.
Sadowski, Greg. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0217295 A1) “Method And Apparatus For Power Management Using System And Request Tokens” is cited to teach a power management control circuit and method that includes a power register that contains a number of request tokens for at least one power consumption module. The number of request tokens represents a power adjust level of the at least one power consumption module. The power management control circuit and method thereof further includes a power controller coupled to the power register, wherein the power controller determines whether to adjust the power consumption module based on a comparison of a number of system tokens with the number of request tokens for the power consumption module.
Sheller, Nathan J. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0123172) “Methods And Apparatus To Control Power State Transitions” is cited to teach methods and apparatus to control power state transitions in embedded systems. In a disclosed method, power state transitions of agents in the system are managed by a central authority. The agents register themselves with the central authority. When a request to transition the system to a requested power state is received, the central authority issues callback instructions to the agents in the system that support the requested power state. The callback instructions are issued in a temporal order indicated by the power state dependencies of the agents. Thus, the central authority arbitrates the order in which the agents transition to the requested power state. The power state dependencies of the agents are registered with the central authority by the agents either at power-up of the system or when the agents are plugged into the system.
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/TERRELL S JOHNSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2176
1 Claim 8 appears to be an independent claim (A system to perform processing…) that dependent on a claim claimed in independent claim 1 (… the control unit of claim 1…). The claim should be rewritten in independent form. Appropriate action is required.
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