Appeal No. 1996-3391 Page 13
Application No. 08/160,573
reasonable, claim 4 calls for more. In response to the
examiner’s rejection, appellants contend that Ing-Simmons fails
to disclose that the shift control input comes from a data
register. While appellants do admit that, “at best,” Ing-
Simmons suggests that the shift amount is stored in OPTIONS
register 3310, appellants contend that this OPTIONS register is
separate from data register file 3300 [principal brief-page
10]. The examiner [at pages 10-11 of the answer] contends that
by specifying one register as a “special function data
register,” this reasonably implies that the register is used
for the purpose of storing the shift amount and is not a
general purpose data register. Therefore, one could interpret
this special function data register as being distinct from
other registers in the register file. Accordingly, Ing-
Simmons’ OPTIONS register may be considered a “special function
data register,” as set forth in the claim. However, as pointed
out by appellants [reply brief-page 5], claim 4 specifically
requires that the “special function data register” which stores
a default shift amount, must be “a predetermined one of said
plurality of data registers.” Therefore, the examiner’s
interpretation that the “special function data register” may be
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