Appeal No. 1998-0449
Application 08/578,900
column select signal latch circuits are considered to be the
tap latches of Pinkham or the tap latches in combination with
the column address latch and column decoder of Pinkham, the
specific recitations of claim 15 are not obtained [reply
brief, pages 1-3]. We agree with appellant.
The examiner has read the claimed column select latch
circuits on Pinkham’s tap latches 42-48. These latches are
connected to a decoder shared by the column select circuits
and the tap latches [30, 52]. A single decoder [30, 52]
provides column select signals to column select circuits 30 of
each memory as well as tap latch signals to each tap latch 42-
48. The column select lines of claim 15 must be the
unnumbered bus lines of Pinkham which connect the decoder [30,
52] to the column select circuits 30. Note that this bus is
different from bus number 50 which connects the decoder [30,
52] to the tap latches. If the tap latches are considered to
be the column select signal latch circuits of claim 15, then
there is no coupling of these circuits to the column select
lines as recited in claim 15. The tap latches are only
connected to bus line 50 which is not the same
as the column select lines which switch bit lines of the
memory cells to the data transmission lines [I/O ] as recited
0-3
in claim 15.
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