Ex parte Herzl et al.

Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences

Apr 13, 1998

07755237 (B.P.A.I. Apr. 13, 1998)

Application for patent filed September 5, 1991.1
1
THIS OPINION WAS NOT WRITTEN FOR PUBLICATION
The opinion in support of the decision being entered today (1)
was not written for publication in a law journal and (2) is
not binding precedent of the Board.
Paper No. 16
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
_____________
BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
_____________
Ex parte ROBERT DOV HERZL and
DAVID A. SCHROTER
_____________
Appeal No. 95-0692
Application 07/755,2371
______________
ON BRIEF
_______________
Before THOMAS, FLEMING and CARMICHAEL, Administrative Patent
Judges.
THOMAS, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Appeal No. 95-0692
Application 07/755,237
2
Appellants have appealed to the Board from the examiner’s
final rejection of claims 1 to 6, which constitute all the
claims remaining in the application.
Representative claim 4 is reproduced below:
4. Apparatus for reserving a bus for data transfer in a
multi-processor data processing system containing a plurality
of data buses interconnecting a plurality of storage control
elements, wherein each of said storage control elements is
assigned a default data bus, said apparatus comprising:
token control logic means for passing a token from one
storage control element to another upon an occurrence of a
machine cycle; and
priority logic means for detecting a request for data
transfer from one of said storage control elements, said one
of said storage control elements being a requesting source,
said priority logic means reserving said requesting source’s
default data bus for said requested data transfer when all of
said plurality of data buses are not available until said
token is passed to said requesting source and at least one of
said data buses is available, said priority logic means
including means for avoiding a conflict between data buses,
wherein data to be transferred from one storage control
element to a second storage control element of said plurality
of storage control elements spends at least one machine cycle
in a data bus being used for the data transfer, and
wherein said priority logic means upon receipt of said
token by the requesting source, attempts to first reserve the
requesting source’s default data bus, but if the default data
bus is not available, said priority logic means then attempts
to reserve an alternate data bus.
Appeal No. 95-0692
Application 07/755,237
The other two references listed at the top of page 3 of2
the answer have not been considered by us since, as noted by
the examiner, they have not been relied upon in any rejection
of any claim on appeal.
The bottom of the first page of the examiner’s answer3
indicates that the examiner has permitted entry of the
amendment filed with the brief.
The outstanding objection to the drawings under 37 CFR 4
§ 1.83(a) is a petitionable rather than appealable matter. We
note in passing, however, that we disagree with the examiner’s
observation at page 8 of the answer that Fig. 3 does not
provide a means for avoiding conflict. The referenced
description in the paragraph bridging pages 12 and 13 of the
specification as filed does, in our view, convey the conflict
avoidance concept, but it appears that it may be more clearly
depicted in the Fig. 3 version by modifications to the various
arrows intercommunicating the priority logic units 91 and 92
to be more consistent with the verbal description just noted
at pages 12 and 13 of the specification.
3
The following references are relied on by the examiner:2
Boudreau et al. (Boudreau) 4,654,788 Mar. 31, 1987
Eikill et al. (Eikill) 5,131,085 Jul. 14, 1992
(Filed Dec. 4, 1989)
Claims 1 to 6 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103. As3
evidence of obviousness, the examiner relies upon Boudreau in
view of Eikill.
Rather than repeat the positions of the appellants and
the examiner, reference is made to the brief and the answer
for the respective details thereof. 4
Appeal No. 95-0692
Application 07/755,237
4
OPINION
As a result of our thorough study of the combined
teachings and suggestions of Boudreau and Eikill, we must
reverse the outstanding rejection of all claims on appeal
under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103.
Despite the examiner’s attempt to correlate the various
teachings of the references in the statement of the rejection
at pages 3 through 5 of the answer as to the claims on appeal,
the relevance of each reference to the particular claim
language recited in independent claims 1 and 4 on appeal is
hard to determine individually, let alone collectively, as
argued by the examiner. Even in view of Boudreau’s teaching
in the paragraph bridging cols. 31 and 32 that it may be
possible to use other types of priority resolution and timing
circuits than those disclosed in his patent, we find that the
artisan would not have found it obvious to have utilized the
grant token line 76 as well as the various select token lines
of each slave device connected to each master device of Eikill
in Boudreau.
Appeal No. 95-0692
Application 07/755,237
5
Page 4 of the answer asserts that Boudreau did not
specifically disclose the requesting source attempting to
reserve a bus. The examiner appears to find this feature
obvious alone in light of Boudreau’s priority resolver logic
circuits and timing generation circuits 21 in Fig. 1 and
discussed beginning in the middle of column 5. However, not
only does this reasoning of the examiner appear to be based
upon prohibited hindsight, it also fails simply because the
corresponding priority resolver logic circuits of Boudreau do
not teach or suggest such a reservation or attempt to reserve
in Boudreau. On the other hand, Eikill’s ability to transfer
control of its working data bus prior to its use by next
devices looks similar to an attempt to reserve a bus when a
currently controlling device reaches the final cycle of its
operation, that is, its transmission of working data, this
device activates the grant token to indicate to all the other
connected devices that the currently controlling device is on
its final cycle of operation, thus freeing the interface for
the following cycle. Eikill, col. 4, lines 12 to 14 and the
discussion beginning at col. 6, line 11.
Appeal No. 95-0692
Application 07/755,237
6
Finally, the examiner’s attempt to correlate certain
language of representative independent claims 1 and 4 on
appeal to the specific teachings of each reference fails to
convince us of a proper correlation. With respect to the
claimed priority logical functions, as in the representative
independent claim 4 above, this logic means can reserve its
own requesting source’s default data bus for request of data
transfer only when all of the plurality of data buses are
available. Otherwise, such is stated to be delayed if all of
the plurality of data buses are not available, and such occurs
only when the token is passed to the requesting device and at
least one of the data buses does eventually become available.
The end of each independent claim recites further that the
priority logic means must, upon receipt of the token by the
requesting source, attempt to first reserve the requesting
source’s default data bus, but, if such a default bus is not
available, the priority logic means must then attempt to
reserve an alternate data bus. We do not see all of these
features to be reasonably taught or suggested to the artisan
from both references relied upon within 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Appeal No. 95-0692
Application 07/755,237
7
In view of the foregoing, we reverse the rejection of
claims 1 to 6 under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
REVERSED
)
JAMES D. THOMAS )
Administrative Patent Judge )
)
)
) BOARD OF PATENT
MICHAEL R. FLEMING )
Administrative Patent Judge ) APPEALS AND
)
) INTERFERENCES
)
JAMES T. CARMICHAEL )
Administrative Patent Judge )

Appeal No. 95-0692
Application 07/755,237
8
Lynn L. Augspurger
IBM CORP.
Intellectual Property Law
522 South Road (MS-P903)
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601