Appeal No. 1997-3821
Application No. 08/570,256
computer, and said controller chip is electrically decoupled
from the host computer when said connector is disconnected
from the host computer," which makes it sufficiently clear
from this language that the connector is carried by an edge of
the expansion circuit board.
The examiner acknowledges that Morgan "does not
specifically show a connector between the memory controller 30
and the CPU bus on CPU board 15 of Figure 1" (Answer at 3) and
makes the following argument for adding such a connector:
Since element 15 is described as a CPU board,
it is reasonable to assume that CPU 20, boot ROM
22 and memory controller 30 would each be included
in separate packages having pins to connect to the
CPU bus. As the Applicant has stated, connectors
are well known in the art. Therefore, it would
have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the
art at the time the invention was made to provide
some sort of connector between memory controller
30 and the CPU bus, and hence CPU 20. The Examiner
also notes that [the] claims do not recite any special
functionality pertaining to the connector. The
specification does not even describe the connector
in the abstract or summary and only briefly mentions
it in one place, on page 4, line 4. [Answer at 3-4.]
The examiner's position is unpersuasive. The apparent reason
the connector is not mentioned at all in the abstract or
summary and is only briefly mentioned in the specification is
that it was known to provide expansion circuit boards with
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