Prior art

Most Relevant Prior Art for US Patent 9,116,908

To identify the most relevant prior art for US patent 9,116,908, we need to examine the patent's cited references. The patent itself states that it "employs the data compression/decompression techniques disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 09/210,491 entitled 'Content Independent Data Compression Method and System,' filed on Dec. 11, 1998, which is commonly assigned and which is fully incorporated herein by reference." This strongly suggests that US Serial No. 09/210,491 (which matured into U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,104, as stated in the patent's description) is highly relevant prior art, foundational to the claimed invention.

A comprehensive analysis of all prior art citations would typically involve retrieving and reviewing each cited document. However, based on the patent's self-referential statement, US Pat. No. 6,601,104 is explicitly identified as the source of the core compression/decompression techniques.

Cited Patent: U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,104

• Full Citation: U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,104, "Content Independent Data Compression Method and System," issued July 29, 2003, to James J. Fallon, and assigned to Realtime Data LLC.
• Publication/Filing Date: Filed on December 11, 1998.
• Brief Description: This patent describes a content-independent data compression method and system. It focuses on using multiple, different data compression algorithms in parallel or sequentially, and selecting the best compression ratio achieved for a given data block. It also details the appending of a descriptor to the compressed data to indicate the compression technique used, allowing for proper decompression. This patent serves as the foundation for the compression and decompression modules (encoder module 25 and decoder module 65) explicitly referenced in US 9,116,908.
• Potentially Anticipates Under 35 U.S.C. § 102: Given that US 9,116,908 states it "employs the data compression/decompression techniques disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 09/210,491" (which is U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,104), this earlier patent likely anticipates aspects of the claims in US 9,116,908 related to the specific implementation of the lossless data compression and decompression processes, particularly:
  • Claim 1: The steps of "compressing the data stream at a compression ratio" and "decompressing the compressed data at a decompression ratio." While Claim 1 broadly covers these steps, the method of achieving these compression/decompression ratios as described in US 6,601,104 would be highly relevant.
  • Claim 20: The "data storage accelerator with a compressor" and "data retrieval accelerator with a decompressor." The specific design and functionality of these components, particularly the use of multiple encoders/decoders and the selection based on compression ratio, would be anticipated by US 6,601,104.
  • Claim 35: The method of "compressing the data stream at a compression ratio which provides a data compression rate." The techniques for achieving this compression rate, as taught by US 6,601,104, would be directly applicable.
  • Claim 42: The method of "decompressing the compressed data at a decompression ratio." Again, the specific methods for performing this decompression, as detailed in US 6,601,104, would be pertinent.

It's important to note that while US 6,601,104 provides the underlying compression technology, US 9,116,908 focuses on the application of this technology to accelerate data storage and retrieval in scenarios where the input/output data rates exceed the capabilities of the storage device itself. Therefore, the novelty in US 9,116,908 would lie in the system and method of integrating high-speed lossless compression/decompression to overcome bandwidth limitations of storage devices, rather than in the compression algorithms themselves.