DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the reply filed on 07/01/2025.
Claims 1-3, 5-11, 13-18, and 20-23 are pending in the application and have been examined.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 5, 9-11, 16-18, and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ronen (U.S. Publication 2002/0087955).
Regarding claims 1, 10, and 17, Ronen discloses an apparatus, comprising: a processor to perform arithmetic operations that include at least addition operations and subtraction operations [Fig. 5]; and circuitry coupled to the processor to cause the processor to perform a fused addition and subtraction operation on three or more source inputs in response to a single processor instruction to produce one or more results [Fig. 6], wherein, in response to the single processor instruction, the circuitry is to cause the processor to: perform a first operation indicated by the single processor instruction to one of add or subtract respective first and second arguments of first and second input sources indicated by the single processor instruction to produce an intermediate value [Fig. 6; paragraph 0042; an add or subtract operation is performed to produce an intermediate result]; and perform a second operation indicated by the single processor instruction to one of add or subtract the intermediate value and a third argument of a third input source indicated by the single processor instruction to produce a result of the one or more results [Fig. 6; paragraph 0042; an add or subtract operation is performed to produce a result].
Regarding claims 5, 11, and 18, Ronen discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein, in response to the single processor instruction, the circuitry is further to cause the processor to: store the result of the second operation in a location indicated by the single processor instruction [paragraph 0042; the result is stored in a register specified by the destination operand].
Regarding claims 9, 16 and 23, Ronen discloses the apparatus of claim 10, wherein one or more of the three or more arguments is a scalar argument [paragraph 0025; the operands are retrieved from registers].
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 2, 7-8, 14-15, and 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ronen in view of Official Notice.
Regarding claim 2, Ronen does not explicitly disclose that the instruction operates on vector data. However, the examiner takes official notice that the practice and benefits of operating on vector data were notoriously well known at the time of the effective filing date of the invention. Such benefits include particular processing advantages in fields such as video processing and machine learning and such operation would therefore have been obvious in the system of Ronen.
Regarding claims 7-8, 14-15, and 21-22, Ronen does not explicitly disclose providing an overflow or underflow indication in response to the instruction. However, the examiner takes official notice that the practice and benefits of using such indications were notoriously well known at the time of the effective filing date of the invention. Such benefits are necessary in certain application environments and such operation in the system of Ronen would therefore have been obvious.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 6, 13, and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Corey Faherty whose telephone number is (571)270-1319. The examiner can normally be reached weekdays between 7:30 and 4:00 ET, with every other Friday off.
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/COREY S FAHERTY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2183