Appeal No. 1997-0708
Application 08/196,618
the Examiner's reliance on the first level cache 120 is in
error.
Third, while the second level cache 122 receives a
request for checking cache coherency, it does not execute such
request by a "first[] read-only request" followed by a "second
read-write request" as claimed. The second level cache 122
checks cache coherency in the usual atomic read-write
transaction manner. It can do this without hurting system
performance by enabling bus buffer 290 to isolate the local
bus 200 attached to the first level cache 120 from the local
bus 200-1 attached to the second level cache 122 (col. 8,
lines 14-22). Thus, the second level cache in Thacker does
not perform as claimed in claim 1.
We have considered the Examiner's responses to
Appellants' arguments (at EA4-5), but do not find them
persuasive. As to point (1), the Examiner refers to the
address compare operation as a "first snoop" and the write
operation as a "second snoop" (EA4). The address compare in
the first level cache is not in response to a request to check
cache coherency and is not a read-only request in response to
a request to check cache coherency. The write operation is
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