II. OVERVIEW OF ’108 PATENT
U.S. Patent No. 5,839,108 (“the ’108 patent”) issued on November 17, 1998 and is titled “Flash Memory File System In A Handheld Record And Playback Device.” (Ex. 1004 at cover page.) The ’108 patent is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 612,772, filed March 7, 1996, which was ultimately issued as U.S. Patent No. 5,787,445 (“the ’445 patent”) on July 28, 1998. Claim 1 of the ’108 patent concerns a method of memory management for non-volatile, long-term storage media, such as flash memory. (Ex. 1004 at claim 1.)
The parent ’445 patent was directed at finding a practical means of using relatively fast secondary, long-term storage such as flash memory to perform certain file system functions normally performed in RAM when non-volatile storage is needed. (Ex. 1008 (’445 patent) at 2:5-7, 9:65-10:2.) The aim of the ’445 patent was to overcome “the inherent practical limitations of using flash memory by developing a sophisticated operating system to efficiently manage data stored and retrieved therefrom.” (Ex. 1004 (’108 patent) at 1:48-51; Ex. 1008 (’445 patent) at 3:22-28, 8:65-9:2.)

Claim 1 of the ’108 patent is word-for-word identical to claim 1 of the ’445 patent except that claim 1 of the ’108 patent adds one additional claim element.
The elements common to both claim 1 of the ’445 patent and claim 1 of the ’108 patent are:
(a) creating the primary memory from a non-volatile, long-term
storage medium, wherein the primary memory comprises a
plurality of blocks in which the data segments are to be stored;
(b) coupling a cache memory to the primary memory, said cache
memory providing temporary and volatile storage for at least
one of the data segments;
(c) writing a new data segment from the cache memory to the
primary memory by linking said new data segment to a
sequentially previous logical data segment by the following
steps:
(1) receiving the new data segment in the cache memory;
(2) moving the new data segment from the cache memory to
a next available space within primary memory such that
the new data segment is stored in primary memory in
non-used memory space;
(3) identifying the previous logical data segment in primary
memory;
(4) creating a logical link between the previous logical data
segment and the new data segment such that the logical
link provides a path for sequentially accessing the data
segments within the primary memory;
(5) creating additional serial and logical links as subsequent
new data segments are written to primary memory, said
logical links providing the path for serially accessing the
data segments regardless of contiguity of the data
segments relative to each other within the primary
memory…
Claim 1 of the ’108 patent sought to improve upon the ’445 patent by adding the limitation: and (6) storing the data segments to primary memory in a manner consistent with an industry standard data storage format while retaining linking between data segments created in previous steps.

The object of the added final limitation of claim 1 of the ’108 patent was, in part, “to enable the flash memory to store data so as to appear readable to industry standard information storage and retrieval operating interfaces and operating systems” and “to enable a plurality of different flash memory storage devices utilizing different technologies to be used with a same … device.”
This final limitation therefore realizes that data stored according to what the patents term the “Norris Flash File System” may need to be readable by devices that utilize a different operating system or file system.

(doni comment: a complete Interoperable system ...or cross platform system killing off all the problems of interfacing the industry as a whole)

The specifications of the ’108 patent and the ’445 patent describe a number of embodiments in which this final step can be accomplished. For example, the ’108 patent explains with respect to the hardware implementing claim 1:
“Of course, flash memory in all of its different implementations
can be used as explained previously. However, the present invention
includes at this port 90 the ability to provide signals which are
compatible with various data exchange formats. For example, the in
the presently preferred embodiment, the port 90 is able to provide
signals which are compliant with an industry standard IDE hard drive
memory card interface.
“It is another advantage of the present invention to be able to
provide industry compliant signals which are compatible with long-
term storage media. In this way, a flash memory coupled to the port
90 could be removed from the handheld record and playback device
and coupled to a port on a personal computer which is also compliant
with the IDE hard drive memory card interface in order to exchange
data therebetween.” In addition to this hardware implementation, the specification provides an example of the method of the final element of claim 1:
“Although the present invention is able to store data in a format which is readable by the IDE hard drive memory card interface, the
underlying data is advantageously stored in accordance with the
NORRIS FLASH FILE SYSTEM as disclosed in the parent
application [the ’445 patent]. Alternatively, the present invention makes possible a hybrid combination of the NORRIS FLASH FILE SYSTEM and the IDE hard drive memory card interface which follows more closely the conventional memory scheme of the IDE hard drive memory card interface. Nevertheless, the advantages of the present invention are better realized by manipulating data and executing voice message creation, insertion, deletion and other record and playback functions in accordance with the NORRIS FLASH FILE SYSTEM.”
(Id. at 8:52-65.)
Further, the ’445 patent notes in pertinent part:
“[T]he Norris Flash File System (referred to hereinafter as “file
system”) can also be viewed at different levels of implementation.
That is to say, the file system is working at several different levels so
as to be compatible with existing hardware. For example, there is a
physical memory structure, memory block mapping, and a file system
logical overlay of the physical memory structure as shown in Figs. 5
and 6. There is also a hierarchy for cataloging data saved in the
memory. For example, the file system is compatible with DOS found
on many Intel microprocessor-based personal computers today. This
is accomplished by including with the file system elements which
make files saved by the file system recognizable to DOS, and by
making it a ‘DOS installable file system’ through the use of a DOS redirector. This also includes using DOS conventions such as a
maximum of eight characters for a file name followed by a three
character extension. More features of the file system, to be explained
later, include implementations of an Application Program Interface
(API) which consists of higher level file system function calls, as well
as BIOS (hardware specific) function calls which execute the
functions of the API calls at the hardware level.”

END: II. OVERVIEW OF ’108 PATENT

doni