Appeal No. 1998-0049
Application 08/289,028
Appellants further argue (Br5) that they find no
teaching in Vandierendonck of utilizing the mask bits "to
select any one or more of the conditions to form said
particular set of status conditions," as claimed. It is
argued that Vandierendonck's "mask" is used only in register
and flag instructions for encoding and decoding digits for
ALU manipulation and display, not for conditional branch
instructions (Br5).
The Examiner responds (EA8-9):
Vandierendonck et al in columns 6-7 taught 9 bits in
the instruction register are used for jump
instructions, mask logic (35) received mask bits from
the instruction register and condition logic (40) for
executing conditional branch instructions in response
to various operating situations (states or conditions
e.g., see column 7 (line 1 et seq.)). Examiner cannot
see any better and clearer teaching than this as far as
using mask bits for branching. . . . Vandierendonck et
al teachings with respect to using masking for
conditional branch instruction is crystal clear and no
one can interpret it away or argue it away. [Emphasis
in original.]
Appellants respond to this new point of argument by
stating that Vandierendonck does not combine masks and
conditional instruction execution in any manner (RBr2).
Vandierendonck's conditional jump instruction does not
contain a mask field at all. It is argued that
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