Appeal No. 1999-0498
Application 08/532,225
availability rather than source data availability like the
present invention. The examiner points to page 113 of Nguyen
and disagrees with this argument [answer, pages 8-9].
We agree with the position argued by appellants. The
portion of Nguyen relied on by the examiner only suggests that
Nguyen determines when functional execution units (a resource)
will become available. The examiner equates this with source
operand availability, but we do not see the connection.
Although the availability of a functional unit in Nguyen means
that all the instructions have been completed by that unit,
there is no teaching or suggestion that these instructions
have any relationship to the instruction that the
microprocessor currently wishes to execute. In other words,
the availability of the functional unit in Nguyen does not
mean that an instruction is scheduled for dispatch prior to
the source operand being computed. Nguyen saves time by
dispatching instructions just before the functional unit
becomes available, but Nguyen does not teach or suggest that
instructions can be dispatched before a needed source operand
is computed. The lack of a needed source operand being
computed would appear to stall the processing in Nguyen in the
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