Appeal No. 1999-2416
Application No. 08/705,449
represented as being directed to handling resource requirements of critical and non-
critical tasks and deemed to complement the teachings of Camillone.
We find that Camillone describes, at column 8, line 49 through column 9, line 5,
operation of the conventional UNIX disk quota subsystem. Each user is given a
particular quota for disk space. If the user requests an allocation that is over quota, the
request is denied. The quota implementation also contains “soft limits” which are used
to provide warnings, but the details are not of interest in Camillone’s disclosure of the
invention. The reference also describes conventional UNIX systems at column 1, line
59 through column 2, line 10. Again there is mention of “disk quotas” set by system
administrators to allocate disk space to specified users. The Berkeley Software
Distribution (BSD) version of UNIX is presented as providing a way to limit resource
consumption by a process. The controls under BSD may limit “processing time,
maximum file size, core file size, memory usage, process stack size and process data
segment size” (col. 1, ll. 65-67), although the controls are not considered “quotas.”
Ferguson describes (“Detailed Description,” columns 2 through 6) management
of critical and non-critical tasks in real-time computer systems. Should a request for
memory allocation by a non-critical task exceed the memory allocation quota for that
particular task, execution of the task is suspended, to be restarted by a scheduler at an
appropriate time. Col. 5, l. 37 - col. 6, l. 3. Although described in terms of memory
allocation, the disclosed method “could be used for any resource that is consumed in
bits per unit of time.” Col. 6, ll. 9-11.
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