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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-10, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter.
As per claim(s) 1-10, 19, and 20, the claimed system has been read in view of applicant's specification (The method 700 can be performed by processing logic that can include hardware (e.g., processing device, circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode, hardware of a device, integrated circuit, etc.), software (e.g., instructions run or executed on a processing device), [0079]). The examiner notes that applicant describes hardware as including open ended language (“e.g.”, “etc”) and comprising a solely software embodiment (“microcode”), and software as including open ended language (“e.g.”) and thus it is reasonable to interpret any hardware component to include solely software embodiments. Therefor the claimed hardware elements of claims 1 and 18 (memory array, control register, storage registers, data access circuit) may each comprise solely of software.
The claimed apparatus appears to include elements which could be interpreted as including only software. Software is not one of the four categories of invention and therefore these claims are not statutory. Software is not a series of steps or acts and thus is not a process. Software is not a physical article or object and as such is not a machine or manufacture. Software is not a combination of substances and therefore not a composition of matter.
The examiner suggests amending the specification to remove “e.g” from the types of hardware and software and to remove “etc” and “microcode” as types of hardware so that the terms are not redefined to include non-statutory matter.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-18 are allowed.
Prior art was not found that explicitly teaches or fairly suggests "in response to one command, (1) generate a center read result based on reading from a target location using a current read level and (2) generate an offset read result based on reading from a target location using an adjusted read voltage that corresponds to the current read level adjusted by the identified offset read voltage" in combination with "storing the center read result and the offset read result in a set of storage registers that are configured to function as cache memory", as outlined in independent claim 11.
The remaining claims, not specifically mentioned, are allowed because they are dependent upon one of the claims mentioned above.
These limitations are considered allowable only in combination with 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 JOSHUA P LOTTICH whose telephone number is (571)270-3738. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri, 9:00am - 5:30pm.
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/JOSHUA P LOTTICH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2113
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