DETAILED ACTION
This is in response to the application filed on 05/19/2025 in which claims 1-20 are preserved for examination; of which claims 1 and 11 are in independent forms.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/19/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Interpretation under 35 USC § 101
The Examiner holds that the human brain is not equipped to perform the steps to determine pinned files (i.e., files that their block movement are restricted), classify files based on write patterns, and determine, based on available storage space in the first area being less than a predetermined level, one or more first files with allocated block addresses that are changeable, from among a first plurality of files stored in the first area (as recited in claims 1 and 11) and being processed within a file system. Moreover, the claimed invention improves functioning of a computer by reducing the cost due to movements of files and prevent loss of pinned files occurring during the movement as described in paragraphs 94, 95, 100, and 100 of the specification.
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 2, 5, 6, 12, 15, and 16 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.
Regarding claims 2 and 12,
the claims recite the limitation of “wherein a hot file is modified or deleted less than a cold file” which is inconsistent with the definitions of “a hot file” and “a cold file” in the specification. The specification in paragraph 65 describes “[t]he hot files may mean files that are relatively frequently modified and/or deleted compared to the cold files. The cold files may mean files that are relatively infrequently modified and/or deleted compared to the hot files” implying that a hot file is modified more (not less) frequently than a cold file. As such, said limitation is inconsistent and contrary to the definitions of hot file and cold file in the specification.
Regarding claims 5 and 15,
the claims recite the limitation of “move at least one of the one or more hot files in a first space in the first area to the second area” which is inconsistent with the parent claims reciting the limitation to “store the one or more hot files in a second area of the memory”. The parent claims 1 and 11 recite storing a hot file in “a second area” while claims 5 and 15 imply that the hot file is stored in “the first area.’ As such, it is not clear how a hot file that is already stored in “a second area” of the memory is moved in the first area to the second area.
Regarding claims 6 and 16,
said claims dependent on the rejected claims 5 and 15 and inherit the same
deficiency. Therefore, claims 6 and 16 are rejected for the same reason set forth in rejections of claims 5 and 15.
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 1-9 and 11-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gupta et al., US 2021/0247930 (Gupta, hereafter) in view of Wallman, US 2009/0276600 and further in view of Torrant et al., US 2015/0169439 (Torrant, hereafter).
Regarding claim 1,
Gupta discloses an electronic device, comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to (See Gupta: at least Fig. 2 and para 38-40):
write a plurality of files of an application to the memory in response to a file input request of the application (See Gupta: at least Fig. 3-4, and para 41, 46, 50, and 56, writing files or data elements (of an application or file system) into a memory/cache);
determine one or more pinned files, from among the plurality of files (See Gupta: at least Fig. 14, Fig. 17, para 73, 74, and 79, determining “pinned storage
elements” based on cache directory);
classify one or more hot files and one or more cold files, from among a remaining plurality of files that are not pinned, according to a plurality of write patterns of the remaining plurality of files (See Gupta: at least Fig. 7, and para 54, 59, 70, and 81, dividing the storage elements into “written to infrequently” (cold files) and frequently written to (hot files) based on updating/writing frequency of the storage elements); and
store the one or more pinned files and the one or more cold files in a first area of the memory that has a fixed size, and store the one or more hot files in a second area of the memory(See Gupta: at least Fig. 7, Fig. 14, and para 45, 46, 59, 61, 71-73, storing the pinned storage elements a “pinned volume storage area 1400” of the “lower performance portion 218b” along with low frequently read/update data (having fixed memory space), and storing high read/update frequent data in the “higher performance portion 218a”).
Although, Gupta discloses storing high frequently read/updated a storage element in second rea of a cache, Gupta does not explicitly teach store the one or more hot files in a second area of the memory that has a variable size.
On the other hand, Wallman discloses storing frequently-accessed pages or files to a variable-sized memory buffer (See Wallman: at least para 33). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time the invention was effectively filed to modify the teachings of Gupta with Wallman’s teaching in order to implement above function with reasonable expectation of success. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve memory performance and utilization based on availability of memory.
The combination of Gupta and Wallman discloses the limitations as stated above. However, it does not explicitly teach determine, based on available storage space in the first area being less than a predetermined level, one or more first files with allocated block addresses that are changeable, from among a first plurality of files stored in the first area; and move, from the first area to the second area, the one or more first files, and store the one or more pinned files in a space of the first area that is generated based on moving the one or more first files.
On the other hand, Torrant disclose determine, based on available storage space in the first area being less than a predetermined level, one or more first files with allocated block addresses that are changeable, from among a first plurality of files stored in the first area (See Torrant: at least Fig. 6, para 30, and 50-52, determining based on eviction policy (such whether enough memory space available), one or more unpinned pages (which addresses are changeable, as opposite to pinned pages/files); and move, from the first area to the second area, the one or more first files, and store the one or more pinned files in a space of the first area that is generated based on moving the one or more first files (See Torrant: at least Fig. 6, para 30, and 50-52, evicting or moving the unpinned files to another memory and generating space (which the pinned pages/files could be stored)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time the invention was effectively filed to modify the teachings of combination of Gupta and Wallman with Torrant’s teaching in order to implement above function with reasonable expectation of success. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve memory performance and utilization by generating memory space for pinned files when memory space is limited.
Regarding claim 2,
the combination of Gupta, Wallman, and Torrant discloses wherein a hot file is modified or deleted less than a cold file, and a pinned file has an allocated block address that is determined to be unchangeable, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors (Note that the Examiner based on the specification, paragraph 65, interprets a hot file as being modified more frequently, as explained in the 35 USC 102(b) rejections set forth above.
See Gupta: at least Fig. 7, and para 54, 59, 70, 73, 74, and 81 and Torrant: at least Fig. 6, para 30, and 50-52), cause the electronic device to: identify whether a file is stored in the second area based on receiving, from the application, information indicating that a file block stored in the memory corresponds to the file, and the file is to have an attribute indicating the file is pinned; and move the file to the first area based on identifying that the file is stored in the second area, and designate the attribute to indicate the file is pinned (See Gupta: at least Fig. 7, and para 54, 59, 70, 73, 74, and 81 and Torrant: at least Fig. 6, para 30, and 50-52, marking a file/page as “pinned” and transferring the pinned file/page to different memory).
Regarding claim 3,
the combination of Gupta, Wallman, and Torrant discloses preferentially store
the one or more hot files in the second area; and store at least one of the one or more hot files in the first area based on determining there is insufficient storage space in the second area (See Gupta: at least Fig. 7, and para 54, 59, 70, 73, 74, and 81 and Torrant: at least Fig. 6, para 30, and 50-52, the frequently modified files are stored in the high performance memory portion, and it would be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art that those files could be stored in the another memory if there is not enough memory space in the high performance memory portion).
Regarding claim 4,
the combination of Gupta, Wallman, and Torrant discloses preferentially store the one or more cold files in the first area; and store at least one of the one or more cold files in the second area based on determining there is insufficient storage space in the first area (See Gupta: at least Fig. 7, and para 54, 59, 70, 73, 74, and 81 and Torrant: at least Fig. 6, para 30, and 50-52, the infrequently modified files are stored in the low performance memory portion, and it would be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art that those files could be stored in the another memory if there is not enough memory space in the low performance memory portion).
Regarding claim 5,
the combination of Gupta, Wallman, and Torrant discloses store the one or more pinned files in the first area; and move at least one of the one or more hot files in a first space in the first area to the second area based on determining there is insufficient storage space in the first area, and move at least one of the one or more pinned files into the first space (See Gupta: at least Fig. 7, and para 54, 59, 70, 73, 74, and 81 and Torrant: at least Fig. 6, para 30, and 50-52).
Regarding claim 6,
the combination of Gupta, Wallman, and Torrant discloses determine whether no hot files are stored in the first area or whether there would be insufficient storage space available to store the one or more pinned files in the first area after moving the one or more hot files to the second area (See Gupta: at least Fig. 7, and para 54, 59, 70, 73, 74, and 81 and Torrant: at least Fig. 6, para 30, and 50-52, no frequently modified file is stored in the low performance memory portion); and move at least one of the one or more cold files from a second space of the first area to the second area based on determining there is insufficient storage space available to store the one or more pinned files in the first area, and store the one or more pinned files in the second space (See Gupta: at least Fig. 7, and para 54, 59, 70, 73, 74, and 81 and Torrant: at least Fig. 6, para 30, and 50-52, it would be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art that those files could be stored in the another memory
if there is not enough memory space in the high performance memory portion).
Regarding claim 7,
the combination of Gupta, Wallman, and Torrant discloses wherein the one or more hot files comprise at least one of a temporary storage file or a cache file, and wherein the one or more cold files comprise at least one of a multimedia file or an application execution file (See Gupta: at least Fig. 3-4, and para 41, 50, and 56, the files or data elements could be cache file/page and execution files).
Regarding claim 8,
the combination of Gupta, Wallman, and Torrant discloses store the plurality of files in the first area, irrespective of attributes of the plurality of files, based on determining the available storage space in the first area exceeds the predetermined level; and store the one or more hot files in the second area based on determining the available storage space in the first area is less than the predetermined level (See Gupta: at least Fig. 7, and para 54, 59, 70, 73, 74, and 81 and Torrant: at least Fig. 6, para 30, and 50-52, the frequently modified files are stored in the high performance memory portion, and it would be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art that those files could be stored in the another memory if there is not enough memory space in the high performance memory portion).
Regarding claim 9,
the combination of Gupta, Wallman, and Torrant discloses wherein the plurality of write patterns comprise at least one of: file size, whether a file is modified (dirty page), a time (modification time) when the file was modified, a time interval (modification interval) at which the file was modified, a count (fsync) with which a system called the file, a size (chunk size) of a portion of the file being modified, an extension of the file, a directory name in which the file is stored, or whether a predetermined file system is used (See Gupta: at least Fig. 7, and para 54, 59, 70, 73, 74, and 81, frequently modified files).
Regarding claims 11-19,
the scopes of the claims are substantially the same as claims 1-9, respectively, and are rejected on the same basis as set forth for the rejections of claims 1-9, respectively.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10 and 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.
Choi, US 2022/0229584 disclosing a memory system may include a storage medium including a buffer region and a main region; and a controller configured to, when performing a flush operation, move normal data from the buffer region to the main region and maintain pinned data in the buffer region, wherein the pinned data is data which is determined by a host device to be maintained in the buffer region irrespective of the flush operation.
Dussud et al., US 6,898,611 disclosing a method for efficiently pinning references to the managed heap in which it allows for references to managed objects to be declared as pinned during a call to unmanaged code. The references are then reported as pinned to a garbage collector in response to invocation of a garbage collection service. The reference can be declared as pinned by a programmer within the source code or automatically invoked at run-time based on an unsafe condition. The garbage collection service will not move or relocate objects that are referenced by the active pinned local variables. If a garbage collection does not occur, the fact that the local variables are declared pinned is ignored.
Jin et al, US 2021/0334029 disclosing a data storage apparatus may include a storage including a first region and second region, each region includes a plurality of memory blocks, and a controller configured to exchange data with the storage at a request of a host. The controller may include a data classification component configured to classify attributes of data stored in the storage as hot data or cold data based on continuity of the data, and configured to move the hot data to the first region and the cold data to the second region respectively by a background operation.
Points of Contact
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/Hares Jami/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2164
02/19/2026