Appeal 2007-2127
Reexamination Control No. 90/006,621
4. Reexamination claims all recite "multithreading"
All of the independent claims recite "multithreading" (or
"multithreaded") and, in one form or another, "concurrent asynchronous
preemptive time-sliced execution of a plurality of threads of instructions
located within the same software program," as in the '604 patent's definition
of "multithreading." For example, claim 1 recites a "method of preemptive
multithreaded operation of a computer . . . having an interrupt operation so
as to provide for execution of a program having a task comprising a plurality
of processing subtasks each performed concurrently . . . by a respective one
of a plurality of processing instruction threads of said program" and
"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 executing thread." "Asynchronous" is implied by the fact
that the executing thread can be preempted at the end of its timeslice without
regard to what another thread is doing.
Although the issue of priority depends on written description support
for preemptive "multithreading," there are some other features of the claims
that should be mentioned in this claim interpretation section.
Some of the claims specifically require that the threads alternate back
and forth to perform successive incremental portions of their respective
subtasks, which is a characteristic of true preemptive multithreading. This is
consistent with the '604 patent's description ('604 patent, col. 1, lines 45-53):
The operation termed "multithreading" provides that control of
the processor is thus transferred repeatedly back and forth between the
threads so rapidly that the threads are run substantially
simultaneously. The threads may thus execute incrementally and
piecewise with their successive task portions executed alternately in a
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