Appeal No. 2002-2330
Application No. 09/116,260 Page 9
that it executes more efficiently than is typical of prior art
systems (col. 6, lines 55-58).
From these teachings of the prior art, we find no teaching
or suggestion to provide the system of Hagqvist with firing
instructions as taught by Morrison. As acknowledged by the
examiner (answer, page 5) Hagqvist does not disclose that the
delay value can be stored as part of the instruction, but rather
is directed to branching from memory 15 to auxiliary memory 20 in
response to a match occurring in comparator 22 when the program
count output of program counter 28 matches the pre-loaded address
in address comparator 22. In Hagqvist, at the termination of the
branch program, program counter 28 reaches the end count of the
substitute program. When that value issues on line 32, address
comparator 22 (which has been loaded with the end count value)
recognizes a match and causes program counter load controller 26
to load a next address value in operating program 15 into program
counter 28. This results in CPU 10 accessing the next address
value in operating program 15 and continues to run in seamless
fashion (col. 2, line 50 through col. 3, line 18). Because
Hagqvist is directed to branching from a memory to a substitute
memory when the program count reaches a particular address, we
find no suggestion that would have motivated an artisan to apply
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