Appeal No. 1998-0062
Application No. 08/252,896
BACKGROUND
The appellants’ invention relates to a multi-port switching system and method for a
computer bus. An understanding of the invention can be derived from a reading of
exemplary claim 1, which is reproduced below.
1. A multi-port switching system for a computer bus, said multi-port switching system
being operative for selectively coupling one of n bus initiator devices to a bus target
device, said switching system comprising:
a plurality m of initiator buses, wherein m and n are integers, and wherein n is
greater than m,
a plurality m of switching circuits,
each of said switching circuits having a bus initiator interface that is coupled
through an initiator bus to a subset of said n bus initiator devices, each of said switching
circuits having a bus target interface that is coupled to said bus target device through said
computer bus,
each of said switching circuits being responsive to one of said subset of said n bus
initiator devices connected to said bus initiator interface for coupling said one bus initiator
device to said bus target device by way of said bus target interface and said computer
bus; and
each of said switching circuits generating a busy signal to a remainder of said
other switching circuits while said one bus initiator device is coupled to said bus target
device.
The prior art reference of record relied upon by the examiner in rejecting the
appealed claims are:
House et al. (House) 5,274,783 Dec. 28, 1993
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