The Training Materials provide a triple precision arithmetic example,(322) which is similar to the matrix multiplication example, discussed above.
In this example, the Training Materials provide that the specification "discloses a method of performing triple precision arithmetic in a general purpose computer."(323) The specification also suggests that many of the complex chemical analysis computations that previously were performed on supercomputers can now be performed using a desktop computer programmed in accordance with the disclosed invention.(324) A hardware embodiment is provided as well as a software embodiment.(325) The software embodiment is described as a "more flexible and more implementable embodiment," although slower than the hardware embodiment, "where the speed is not critical."(326)
Claim 1 of the triple precision arithmetic example recites:
A method of performing triple precision arithmetic in a computer having a plurality of memory cells comprising the steps of: a.
[v]iewed as a whole, the claimed invention merely performs triple precision arithmetic.
In this example, Claim 1 is limited to "triple precision arithmetic," which is arguably limited to a practical application of the computer arithmetic processing arts,(333) just as Claims 2 and 3 of the neural network example are limited to a "neural network,"(334) which is a practical application in the art of artificial intelligence.
More interestingly, the analysis of Claim 3 of the neural networks example and Claim 1 of the triple precision arithmetic example both reveal the above described tension in the recent Federal Circuit precedent and the Flook and Gottschalk decisions, as discussed above.
[sections] 101 statutory subject matter challenges.(335) For example, a patentee should only be entitled to patent protection for the breadth of Claim 1 if the claimed computer-implemented process for triple precision arithmetic is distinguishable (i.e., is novel and non-obvious) from prior computer-implemented triple precision arithmetic (and other relevant prior art, alone or in proper combination).
A triple precision arithmetic logic unit in a computer having a plurality of memory cells comprising: a.
The criticism of the analysis of Claim 1 of the triple precision arithmetic example applies equally well to the analysis of Claim 2 of this example.
Claim 3 of the triple precision arithmetic example recites: "A triple precision arithmetic logic unit as claimed in claim 2, wherein the logic unit is embedded in a single monolithic PAL."(341)