Appeal No. 97-2470 Page 8
Application No. 08/201,817
first bus upon receipt of the retry signal. A bus arbiter
includes logic for receiving the busy signal and preventing
any bus master seeking access to the second bus from
participating in arbitration for control of the first bus
until the busy signal has been negated. Col. 2, ll. 55-68.
The reference further teaches, “[u]pon negation of the
busy signal, all bus masters will be permitted to compete for
ownership of the bus.” Id. at ll. 52-54 (emphasis added).
Heil does not provide an interval during which a bus master on
the secondary bus is denied access to the secondary bus after
negation of the busy signal, i.e., after the second bus is
relinquished. The absence of the claimed circuitry for
providing an interval from the reference negates anticipation
of independent claims 1 and 6 and their dependent claims 2
through 5 and 8 through 10, respectively.
Similar to claims 1 and 6, the other independent claims;
viz., claims 11 and 15, 18, and 21; specify a timer circuit,
means for providing an interval, and a step of precluding a
bus master, respectively. These limitations similarly are not
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007