Appeal No. 1998-1507 Application No. 08/499,988 In our view, the examiner has failed to establish a prima facie case of obviousness. The mere shifting of digits in Waggener’s shifter does not, in our view, equate to the claimed “offset signal that programs the floating point to fixed point conversion.” Waggener converts a floating point number in one format to a floating point number in a different format and does this by splitting the floating point number in the first format into sign, exponent and fraction components and using the exponent to shift the fractional component, if necessary. The exponent component is modified in the shift control block 124 according to the new floating point number format. Waggener does not disclose or suggest the claimed offset signal that programs the shifter to perform a floating point to fixed point conversion.1 Even if, as the examiner asserts, the artisan recognized a desirability to obtain a fixed point number rather than another floating point number, the examiner has provided no 1The offset signal programs the resolution of the fixed point number wherein a low valued offset signal provides more accuracy in the whole number portion of the fixed point number and a high valued offset signal provides more accuracy in the fractional portion of the fixed point number. -4-Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007