Appeal No. 1997-0923
Application No. 08/400,414
Although the examiner does not explicitly withdraw the
rejection of claim 45, since claim 45 recites the same
limitations as in
claim 26 but in a device format, we assume that the rejection
of claim 45 is withdrawn as well. Accordingly, claims 21
through 25, 27 through 33, 35 through 44, 46, and 47 remain
before us on appeal.
The appellants' invention relates to a method for
evaluating Boolean expressions in a computer system. More
specifically, the method involves performing a comparison to
obtain a condition value, performing a Boolean reduction
function on the condition value to produce a result value,
and conditionally writing the result value to a target
register. Claim 21 is illustrative of the claimed invention,
and it reads as follows:
21. A method of evaluating Boolean expressions and predicates
in a computer system having a processor with an instruction
unit for decoding instructions of an instruction set, a
functional unit for executing operations specified in the
decoded instructions, and a set of registers, the method
comprising the steps of:
decoding instructions of a program in the
instruction unit, the program's instructions being
selected from the instruction set;
2
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