Appeal No. 2004-1608 Application 09/752,873 the cited references teach an address decode unit as claimed [reply brief, page 4]. We will sustain the examiner’s rejection of claim 22. We agree with the examiner that Ayukawa teaches the selection of one of the sense amplifiers in response to the hit signals. We find that this operation constitutes an address decode unit as broadly recited in claim 22. With respect to claims 23 and 24, which stand or fall together, appellant again argues that the examiner has failed to address the recitations of these claims [brief, page 6]. The examiner responds that Brauer teaches decoders, tag arrays, hit signals and sense amplifiers [answer, page 8]. Appellant responds that the examiner has failed to meet his initial burden of presenting a prima facie case of obviousness. Appellant asserts that the examiner has failed to identify how the cited references teach the recitations of these claims [reply brief, pages 4-5]. We will sustain the examiner’s rejection of claims 23 and 24. We agree with the examiner that Ayukawa teaches that there is a separate address decode unit for each of the banks of memory. Since each decode unit has a decoder and a control unit arranged in the claimed manner, we find that the collective -12-Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007