Moxa... Have no idea if this makes any diff but...

Re prior art...
As you know #5,440,749 was the original patent app by Fish & Moore that was the parent to '336

David Eng was the Primary examiner for both

1987 Magar patent #4713749 was cited in this patent as prior art

So this is not 'new' prior art..

Re PICs amendment motion...
It appears, possibly, that MEI is trying to confuse the issue of language here.. Perhaps this was your original point.. that MEI is stating that not everything with a crystal timing 'ring occilator' (Magar does not call it this)  device infringes.. and therefore TPL's motion to amend PICs should be denied

Excerpt from Magar patent..
The microcomputer 10 has suitable supply voltage and crystal-input terminals; for example, the device employs a single +5 V Vdd supply and ground or Vss, and a crystal is connected to terminals X1 and X2 of the device 10 to control certain system timing. The microcomputer 10 is a very high speed device with a crystal input of 20 MHz, providing an instruction execution rate of five million per second, in one embodiment.

Hope this helps in some way...