Appeal No. 96-1014
Application 08/032,530
synchronizations. Fetching an instruction regardless
of the status of the synchronization bus necessarily
follows when unsynchronized mode of operation is
indicated since this indicates asynchronous operation.
In other words when the synch flag is not set,
asynchronous operation occurs.
Jaswa discloses that in frame synchronization
techniques "the processing systems are synchronized only
periodically at some predetermined frame interval and are
permitted to run asynchronously between synchronizations"
(col. 1, line 46-49). Jaswa also discloses that each
computer system is instructed "to set a sync flag" (col. 2,
line 17). Appellant argues that the sync flag in Jaswa and
the flip-flop 7 in Kametani are equivalent to the "okay to
synchronize" signal of this invention (RBr8-10). We have
studied Jaswa and the examiner's arguments in response and
agree with appellant. The sync signal causes a frame
synchronization to occur, just as the "okay to synchronize"
signal of this invention and the "0" output of the flip-flop
7 in Kametani; it does not act as a flag to turn instruction
by instruction synchronization between processors off and
on. In our opinion, the teaching of synchronized and
unsynchronized modes of operation and a sync flag in Jaswa
would not have motivated one of ordinary skill in the art to
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