Ones' complement adder/subtractor

[Eric Smith]

  Chuck wrote:
 > It's hard to believe that the approach used in the Sun patent hadn't
 > been used commercially before. That's what I meant by "prior art".

In patent-speak, what you mean is that you're surpised that there isn't 
some earlier commercial development which qualifies as prior art to 
invalidate the Sun claims. The Sun patent can only be prior art for 
things that come after it.

Eric