Appeal No. 1997-0923
Application No. 08/400,414
Claims 37, 39, and 40 each recite that multiple
functional units write to the same register simultaneously.
The examiner
relies on Faudemay and Conners as evidence of obviousness.
The examiner states (Final Rejection, page 7) that "[a]lthough
Faudemay does not discuss the use of registers . . . for
storing results; Conners discloses the use of a small memory
to store results, operands, etc." The examiner concludes that
it would have been obvious "to provide registers or some means
of storing results for use in future operations." The
examiner, however, fails to address the limitation of writing
by multiple functional units to the same register
simultaneously. In the Answer, page 9, the examiner asserts
that "[t]he register to which claims 37 and 39 and 40 refer
appears to be the input latches to an AND functional unit or
AND gate. An AND gate produces a "TRUE" result if all inputs
are TRUE." The relevance of this statement to the limitation
of plural units writing simultaneously to a register eludes
us. As Faudemay does not even discuss registers, as admitted
by the examiner, Faudemay clearly cannot disclose a register
to which multiple units write concurrently. Further, the
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