Ex Parte STEVENS - Page 7




           Appeal No. 2002-0727                                                                     
           Application No. 08/869,878                                                               
           with the instantly claimed cache regions accessible for the                              
           claimed read operation, but inaccessible for a write operation.                          
           Furthermore, combining the separate caches of Pierce into Brenza                         
           would appear to defeat the stated goal of the partitioned cache of                       
           Brenza being able to operate independently and in parallel.1                             
           (column 7, lines 46-48).                                                                 
                 Furthermore, we observe that the shared memory of Pierce is                        
           utilized “as a source for processor instructions and a                                   
           source/destination for processed information” (column 5, lines 42-                       
           43).  It does not appear to have a local cache function.                                 
                 Therefore, even were there sufficient motivation to arrive at                      
           the combination, we do not see how the claimed invention would                           
           result.  The separate caches for each processor are not mutually                         
           accessible to each processor, even if the shared memory might be.                        
           Both claims 1 and 6 require that access to data must be provided                         
           if the copy of the desired data resides in any region within the                         
           cache memory.  In the absence of this element from the                                   
           combination, we find a prima facie case of obviousness has not                           
           been made out.                                                                           



                 Consequently, we are constrained to reverse this rejection.                        
                                                                                                   
           1 Indeed, this would appear to invite the problem of snoop, which Pierce is              
                                                 7                                                  





Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007