Appeal No. 1999-2747
Application 08/757,979
levels because it would make the system more economical by
reducing the amount of circuitry required to bypass faults at
the cost of bypassing a greater amount of the cache since this
would not result in any performance degradation if the data is
accessed in amounts no more than the claimed granularity
levels.
As an additional basis for this assertion, the Examiner
states: "In the highly competitive world of computer systems14
. . . artisans constantly strive to reduce cost while
maximizing functionality. Making a particular memory design
more economical, especially if it can be done without
performance degradation, is an important consideration in an
industry where prices are constantly falling."
Appellants argue that just because a solution is more15
economical does not mean the solution is therefore obvious,
and state that the Examiner's assertions amount to an
unsupported opinion by not having objective support to back
the "economical" assertion.
14Examiner's Answer, page 12.
15Brief, page 10; Reply Brief, page 2.
13
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