Appeal No. 2004-1608
Application 09/752,873
the cited references teach an address decode unit as claimed
[reply brief, page 4].
We will sustain the examiner’s rejection of claim 22. We
agree with the examiner that Ayukawa teaches the selection of one
of the sense amplifiers in response to the hit signals. We find
that this operation constitutes an address decode unit as broadly
recited in claim 22.
With respect to claims 23 and 24, which stand or fall
together, appellant again argues that the examiner has failed to
address the recitations of these claims [brief, page 6]. The
examiner responds that Brauer teaches decoders, tag arrays, hit
signals and sense amplifiers [answer, page 8]. Appellant
responds that the examiner has failed to meet his initial burden
of presenting a prima facie case of obviousness. Appellant
asserts that the examiner has failed to identify how the cited
references teach the recitations of these claims [reply brief,
pages 4-5].
We will sustain the examiner’s rejection of claims 23 and
24. We agree with the examiner that Ayukawa teaches that there
is a separate address decode unit for each of the banks of
memory. Since each decode unit has a decoder and a control unit
arranged in the claimed manner, we find that the collective
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