Appeal No. 1997-3821
Application No. 08/570,256
data and address lines, the total number of pins can
exceed one hundred. In general, the
cost of a chip increases with an increase in the number
of pins. In addition, the cost of the board to which the
chip is attached is also more expensive in order to
accommodate the extra pins.
Referring to appellant's Figures 1A and 1B, the invention
solves this problem by providing the expansion board 10, which
has a connector 14 for insertion into an expansion slot (not
shown) of host computer 12, with a memory 32 which stores
configuration data for automatic transfer over the on-board
internal parallel bus 30 to registers 18a and 18b of the on-
board controller 16 when power is applied thereto. The memory
32 includes memory banks 34a and 34b, each of which contains a
set of manual switches (36a, 36b) and a set of tri-state
buffers (38a, 38b). The configuration data is read out of the
tri-state buffers in memory banks 34a and 34b in response to
signals provided on lines 40a and 40b, respectively, by the
on-board controller.
B. The Claims
Of the appealed independent claims, i.e., claims 1, 10,
15, and 18, claim 15 is reproduced below as representative:
15. A method for configuring an expansion circuit
board in an expansion slot having a connector, a
3
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