Appeal No. 97-1213 Page 3
Application No. 08/459,561
As the examiner appears to read Barrett on claim 51,
Barrett’s adapter 14 is analogous to the claimed “interface
device” and bus 12 is the claimed “computer bus.” It is clear
that adapter 14 receives from the computer bus 12 a request
for an nth datum which is then retrieved from a disk via a
peripheral bus and the nth datum is read and stored into the
adapter (adapter cache 54).
Barrett also provides for “read ahead” commands wherein a
device driver within the processor 30 “provides a read ahead
command that is an anticipatory command anticipating the
future read command for a certain block of data” [column 3,
lines 63-66]. These read ahead commands for the n+1th datum
cause a reading and storing into the adapter 14 from the
peripheral bus. The issue before us, and as argued by
appellants, is whether this reading and storing of the n+1th
datum is “before said computer bus transmits a request for
said n+1th datum,” as claimed.
Appellants argue that Barrett does not teach or suggest
this claimed limitation because the read ahead command is
provided by the device driver in Barrett which is located
within processor 30. Therefore, reason appellants, the read
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