Ex parte Chapin et al.

Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences

Sep 18, 1998

08087247 (B.P.A.I. Sep. 18, 1998)

Application for patent filed July 7, 1993. 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not binding precedent of the Board.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. 26
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
_____________
BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
_____________
Ex parte ROBERT M. CHAPIN, KENNETH D. ROMANO,
BENJAMIN D. BROWN, ANTHONY M. FRUMUSA
and PHILLIP A. SCIUTO
_____________
Appeal No. 95-3912
Application 08/087,2471
______________
ON BRIEF
_______________
Before THOMAS, KRASS and TORCZON, Administrative Patent
Judges.
THOMAS, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Appeal No. 95-3912
Application 08/087,247
2
Appellants have appealed to the Board from the examiner’s
final rejection of claims 1 to 23, which constitute all the
claims in the application.
Representative claim 1 is reproduced below:
1. A chain interface controller for controlling a
plurality of integrated input/output controllers, wherein the
requirement for a dedicated programmed microprocessor for
handling data conversion for said chain interface controller
is removed, said chain interface controller comprising:
oversampling means for eliminating random voltage spikes
from an input chain of digital data, the input chain
comprising a plurality of bits, each bit of said plurality of
bits corresponding to an integrated input/output controller
and representative of a state of said corresponding integrated
input/output controller, said oversampling means eliminating
random voltage spikes on said input data chain by sampling
each bit of said chain of digital data on a bit-by-bit basis
three times during a clock period of the chain of data, each
sample being taken at a first predetermined interval from an
immediately previous sample, said oversampling means
outputting a binary value of each bit of said chain of data,
said binary value being representative of a majority of three
samples of each bit taken during the clock period, said binary
value being an oversampled bit of said chain of digital data;
filter means for debouncing said input chain of digital
data by receiving said oversampled bits of data from said
oversampling means and filtering each of said oversampled bits
three times at a second predetermined interval and storing a
filtered sample representative of three successive non-
changing samples in a filtered input register, said second
predetermined interval being representative of a frame clock
period;
input data change detecting means for detecting a change
in any bit of the chain of data and changing a status bit of
Appeal No. 95-3912
Application 08/087,247
A rejection of one claim under the second paragraph of2
35 U.S.C. § 112 is not repeated in the answer from the final
3
the input data chain, said status bit indicating a change of
state of any bit of the input data chain;
interrupt signal generating means generating an interrupt
signal when one bit of the input data chain has changed state,
said interrupt signal being transmitted to a host
microprocessor, said host microprocessor locating and reading
said filtered sample upon the receipt of said interrupt
signal;
a serial output data line for transmitting said input
chain of digital data to said oversampling means from said
plurality of integrated input/output controllers; and
a serial input data line for transmitting an output chain
of digital data, said output chain of digital data being a
serialized version of parallel output data generated by said
host microprocessor for providing instructions to said
integrated input/output controllers.
The following references are relied on by the examiner:
Fisk et al. (Fisk) 4,120,034 Oct. 10,
1978
Daughton et al. (Daughton) 4,266,294 May 05,
1981
Federico et al. (Federico) 4,550,382 Oct. 29,
1985
Claims 1 to 23 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103. As
evidence of obviousness, the examiner relies upon Fisk in view
of Federico as to claims 1, 3 to 9, 11, 13, 14 and 16 to 23,
with the addition of Daughton as to claims 2, 10, 12 and 15. 2
Appeal No. 95-3912
Application 08/087,247
rejection, apparently in view of the filing of an amendment
after final which has been entered by the examiner.
4
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.
OPINION
We reverse the rejections of claims 1 to 23 under 35
U.S.C. § 103.
At the outset, we are not convinced that the examiner has
established a prima facie case of obviousness of the claimed
invention since, initially, we find that it would not have
been obvious for the artisan to have combined from a computer
architecture point of view the systems of Fisk and Federico.
Various portions of Fisk, for example, indicate various
tradeoffs known in the art between a hardware-oriented,
control logic based system versus a programmable controller-
type approach. Note col. 1 generally of Fisk; col. 11, lines
31 through 54; and col. 18, lines 22 through 38. While Fisk
uses a single processor, Federico takes an intermediate
architectural design approach by utilizing a master processor
to control various subsidiary or discrete processors, which in
Appeal No. 95-3912
Application 08/087,247
5
turn control individual portions of a photocopying machine.
This is a more distributed processing-type architectural
approach. In this respect, Federico is more like appellants’
broad concept of the disclosure set forth in Fig. 2 of the
drawings. The examiner offers us no persuasive line of
reasoning as to why the artisan would have found it obvious to
combine the teachings into a single system of the two
references relied upon.
Assuming for the sake of argument, however, that it would
have been obvious for the artisan for some reason to have
combined the teachings of Fisk and Federico, we are not
convinced that the portions relied upon of the two references
the examiner makes reference to would have made obvious the
subject matter of at least the independent claims 1, 7, 14 and
20 on appeal. The examiner’s approach is to indicate that
certain portions of representative claim 1, for example, are
found in Fisk and that certain portions of this claim are
found in Federico. The examiner’s approach is to identify
only concepts which appear to be present to the examiner in
each of the respective references that are set forth in the
claims in a rather detailed format such as the details of the
Appeal No. 95-3912
Application 08/087,247
6
long oversampling means sub-clause in representative claim 1
on appeal. Both oversampling for a noise immunity purposes
and switch debounce immunity are discussed at col. 19 and 20
of Fisk as indicated by the examiner. However, the details of
the oversampling and filter means clauses of claim 1 on appeal
are not specifically identified by the examiner to be found at
this location of the reference and we can find none ourselves.
The emphasis in Fisk is noise immunity by oversampling and
switch debounce being preformed in a software-oriented
approach in the single controller in such a manner as to avoid
the need for complex circuits or switches. Because Fisk is
computer-based, the artisan would have surmised that the
computer was interruptible. However, the interrelationship of
the input data change detecting means and the interrupt signal
generating means in representative independent claim 1 on
appeal go well beyond a general concept of such an interrupt
capability existing in prior art microprocessors.
As to independent claim 7, we are not persuaded that the
Appeal No. 95-3912
Application 08/087,247
7
examiner has provided evidence to us of the three respective
predetermined time intervals recited in this claim, that the
comparing step as well as the interrupt generation feature
occur in the combined teachings of the references in the
detail presented. The examiner’s position recognizes at the
top of page 5 of the answer that Fisk does not need a
conversion from serial to parallel data and vice versa since
the controller only receives and uses one bit at a time. On
the other hand, Federico’s shared communication line 80, often
referred to by the examiner in the rejection, is an Ethernet-
based communication system, which suggests only a serial link.
The examiner’s arguments make reference to the admitted prior
art Fig. 1 of the disclosed invention making reference to
serial input data and serial output data, but presents no
reasoning as to why the artisan would have utilized such
teachings in addition to the combined disparate teachings the
examiner has found and shown to exist in Fisk and Federico
respectively.
As to independent claims 14 and 20 on appeal, initially
we note that claim 20 recites a plurality of the individual
chain interface controllers in the same amount of detail that
Appeal No. 95-3912
Application 08/087,247
8
only a single one of which is recited in independent claim 14.
However, these claims recite specific electronic circuit
elements known in the art. We are at a loss to determine
where such specifically identified elements are to be found in
the applied prior art since the detail of which is not
specified in them or, as in Federico’s or Fisk’s approaches,
are only software-based. Again, Fisk himself emphasizes the
software approach as a preferred tradeoff over the more
discrete hardware circuit element approach of circuit design
for control and sampling purposes. The claims go well beyond
a general assertion of equivalence between hardware and
software approaches.
Overall, we are not convinced that the artisan would have
found it obvious within 35 U.S.C. § 103 to have combined the
respective teachings of Federico and Fisk in the manner argued
by the examiner, and even if such would have been obvious to
do, we are not convinced that the respective teachings and
showings and suggestions in these references meet the features
recited in each independent claim on appeal. To some extent
there is merit to appellants’ argument that the examiner has
exercised prohibited hindsight and has picked and chosen bits
Appeal No. 95-3912
Application 08/087,247
9
and pieces of the respective circuit elements from the
respective references relied upon. In any event, we are not
convinced the examiner has established a prima facie case of
obviousness of the subject matter of independent claims 1, 7,
14 and 20 on the basis of Fisk and Federico. As such, we also
reverse the rejection of additional dependent claims further
relying upon the teachings of Daughton.
Therefore, the decision of the examiner rejecting claims
1 to 23 on appeal is reversed.
REVERSED
)
JAMES D. THOMAS )
Administrative Patent Judge )
)
)
) BOARD OF PATENT
ERROL A. KRASS )
Administrative Patent Judge ) APPEALS AND
)
) INTERFERENCES
)
Appeal No. 95-3912
Application 08/087,247
10
RICHARD TORCZON )
Administrative Patent Judge )

sd
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