Appeal No. 1998-2749
Application 08/637,062
With respect to claim 20, Appellant argues (Br6) that the
Examiner has not identified what corresponds to the "decision
logic" which compares the count value of the held frame counter
"with a variable threshold value to determine whether to engage
said DMA circuit in unloading said memory buffer" (emphasis
added). The Examiner finds that Hausman teaches (at col. 3, lines
10-42) an adapter programmed to initiate DMA backup mode once
receive FIFO 170 has less than a receive FIFO free byte threshold
number of remaining available bytes (EA7).
The Examiner does not address the "variable" limitation. As
disclosed by Appellant, the variable threshold value "may be based
on the rate of unloading said data frames from the memory buffer"
(specification, p. 8, lines 10-12; claim 21). Hausman discloses a
fixed FIFO free byte threshold number indicating the remaining
available bytes in the RX FIFO 170 (col. 3, lines 33-42; figure 5,
step 520), i.e., a fixed DMA enable threshold. While Hausman
discloses an adjustable (variable) Early Receive (Early RX)
Threshold, this has to do with the data transmission, not a DMA
backup mode (col. 3, lines 10-32). Thus, we find that Hausman
does not describe a "variable threshold value." The rejection of
claim 20 is reversed.
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