04-01-2004, 01:00 AM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186
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Dell and Intel Sued - With Merit?
"A chip design company that was once one of Silicon Valley's highfliers filed a patent infringement suit against Intel and Dell, contending the companies have copied its technology for multimedia computing.
The lawsuit was filed by MicroUnity Systems Engineering, which was founded in 1988 by John Moussouris, a physicist and computer designer.
Mr. Moussouris, a member of a pioneering group of researchers at I.B.M. who invented a computer technology known as reduced instruction set computing, or RISC, was also a co-founder of the MIPS Computer Company. MicroUnity was able to license several basic semiconductor manufacturing techniques."
There have been more than a few apparently "frivolous" lawsuits cropping up lately that affect PPCs, but this one caught my attention as possibly having some merit. True, the company probably would not be suing if it was doing well financially, but Mr. Moussouris strikes me as having better credentials than most of the other lawsuits I've seen recently.
As part of the group that came up with RISC, his influence is in each and every one of our devices. On the other hand, a win for his side could increase the cost of Pocket PC's.
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04-01-2004, 01:14 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,819
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I assume you mean Intel and Dell not Dell and HP right?
This covers Pentium, not XScale so why would it affect PPCs?
Or am I totally missing the point?
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04-01-2004, 01:51 AM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by cageyjames
I assume you mean Intel and Dell not Dell and HP right?
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You're right - I've fixed my post. I was confused. :? There was another company called Intergraph that sued Dell, HP and Gateway for Pentium patents, which Intel just settled for $250 million. That must have been in my head when I wrote the title of this article.  ops:
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Originally Posted by cageyjames
This covers Pentium, not XScale so why would it affect PPCs?
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In the linked article, it says "The lawsuit is being brought by the same legal team that sued Intel on behalf of Intergraph, a maker of microprocessors in Huntsville, Ala. "
In the settlement that this legal team negotiated, "Intergraph also agrees not to file a lawsuit against any Intel customer whose products include a combination of an Intel microprocessor, chipset and motherboard."
If MicroUnity can secure the same kind of deal, it may end up affecting Pocket PCs by increasing the price of chips to accommodate a royalty. The fact that Intel's ARM chips are licensed from the ARM group will probably keep them out of the spotlight, unless Intel has incorporated some of MicroUnity's patented features into their PXA-series ARM chips.
Mostly, I just thought it was interesting, as this guy had an influence on our machines, and is suing the makers of said machines. :mrgreen:
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04-01-2004, 04:03 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,819
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Pat Logsdon
Mostly, I just thought it was interesting, as this guy had an influence on our machines, and is suing the makers of said machines. :mrgreen:
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I wish I came up with an idea. I'd love to sue someone, but my mind is blank. :bangin:
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04-02-2004, 09:15 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186
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Interesting update - the Register has some information about the upcoming XScale Bulverde chip:
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Originally Posted by The Register
Bulverde will incorporate the MMX multimedia instructions that debuted on the Pentium platform in the 1990s.
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If that's true, then the next Xscale chip could very well be affected by this lawsuit.
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