Appeal 2007-2127
Reexamination Control No. 90/006,621
(3) "preemptive time-sliced execution of a plurality of threads of
instructions located within the same software program"
Preemptive time-sliced execution of a plurality of threads is
interpreted to mean that a plurality of threads are subject to "preemptive
time-sliced execution"; i.e., a plurality of threads are preempted to execute
for a fixed timeslice. Since a plurality of threads are preempted, a plurality
of the threads must be "interruptible" (i.e., "capable of being interrupted" or
"capable of being preempted") when their timeslice of execution expires.
"Interruptible" does not require that a thread is always interrupted,
e.g., a thread may finish its subtask before the end of the timeslice and return
control to the operating system and not be interrupted. Nevertheless, it must
be capable of being interrupted. The district court interpreted "thread" to
require a set of instructions that is capable of being interrupted and having
its context stored, and interpreted "multithreading" to require that at least
two threads are interruptible Reiffin v. Microsoft, 270 F. Supp. 2d at 1142.
The Examiner adopted the district court's reasoning (Final Rejection 73-74).
One of ordinary skill in computer art would appreciate that all
executing threads in a preemptive multithreading system must be
"interruptible" when their timeslice is expired or "preemptive execution"
would be meaningless. This is consistent with the '604 patent, which states:
"That is, each interrupt preempts an executing thread after the thread has
executed at most for a brief timeslice during which the thread may have
performed only a portion of its task" (emphasis added) ('604 patent, col. 1,
lines 33-36). It is also consistent with claim 1: "preempting an executing
processing thread of said program in response to each actuation of said
interrupt operation so as to terminate the timeslice of execution of said
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