Appeal No. 2002-2191
Application No. 09/354,482
BACKGROUND
The invention relates to a disk caching system within a mass data storage
system. The cache control processor receives a cache bitmap from the host computer
to specify the data blocks from the mass storage device to be pre-staged into the cache
memory. Representative claim 1 is reproduced below.
1. A method for providing a client-directed pre-stage operation of a cache
memory used to access data blocks from a mass data storage device attached to
a host computer through a channel control processor, the method comprising:
transmitting a bitmap from the host computer to the channel control
processor, the bitmap comprises a plurality of bits;
causing the channel control processor to pre-stage into the cache memory
data blocks from the mass data storage device corresponding to enabled bits in
the bitmap; and
retrieving one or more bytes of data from the data blocks pre-staged into
the cache memory.
The examiner relies on the following reference:
Drewry et al. (Drewry) 5,925,100 Jul. 20, 1999
(filed Mar. 21, 1996)
Claims 1-16 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102 as being anticipated by
Drewry.
We refer to the Final Rejection (Paper No. 6) and the Examiner’s Answer (Paper
No. 11) for a statement of the examiner’s position and to the Brief (Paper No. 10) for
appellants’ position with respect to the claims which stand rejected.
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