Appeal No. 1999-0294
Application No. 08/727,256
enabled during the read operation. The examiner bases this
belief on Arroyo’s disclosure of the ECC generator being used
only when the reading operation is performed [answer-pages 4-
5].
To whatever extent the examiner statement may be accurate
in the sense of the ECC in Arroyo being “in use” or “not in
use,” during certain times during the processing in Arroyo,
this is not the same as the “disabling” and “enabling” of ECC
capabilities, as claimed in the instant application. The
instant claims require that ECC capabilities are disabled.
That means that even if the ECC capabilities would normally be
invoked at some point, they cannot be because the ECC
capabilities are disabled. It is more than a matter of the
ECC generator simply not being used at a particular time
because, in the instant claimed invention, if the ECC
capabilities were not “disabled,” as claimed, then the
subsequent writing of the test pattern may cause the ECC
capabilities to be invoked. However, the instant claimed
invention specifically requires the step of disabling the ECC
capabilities of the memory controller before the subsequent
writing of a test pattern and a first ECC code to a selected
6–
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