Core 2 Duo injunction sought against Intel
A new lawsuit filed against Intel Corp. on behalf of Transmeta threatens to prevent the chipmaker from shipping microprocessors to PC manufacturers such as Apple Computer.
According to InfoWorld, Transmeta is charging Intel with violating 10 of its patents covering processor design and power efficiency techniques.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, seeks damages, royalty payments, and an injunction barring Intel from selling infringing products such as the Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M, Core and Core 2 processors.
The lawsuit comes after the two companies failed to agree to licensing terms, said Transmeta's President and Chief Executive Officer Arthur Swift. "Friendly win-win discussions between the two parties had broken down and we thought is was appropriate now to turn to the courts."
Nine of the 10 Transmeta patents invoked in the lawsuit cover basic processor functions like scheduling and addressing instructions on the chip, according to InfoWorld. The tenth patent reportedly relates to Transmeta's LongRun technology, which is used to adjust the voltage of the processor, depending on its workload.
If granted, an injunction could prevent further shipments of Intel's Core 2 Duo to Apple, which would halt the roll-out of Core 2 Duo-based MacBook and MacBook Pro systems due a little later this year. It would also freeze production of Apple's other Intel-based systems.
However, such an injunction is incredibly unlikely (and a bit sensational) due to the ramifications it would have on the entire PC industry.
According to InfoWorld, Transmeta is charging Intel with violating 10 of its patents covering processor design and power efficiency techniques.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, seeks damages, royalty payments, and an injunction barring Intel from selling infringing products such as the Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M, Core and Core 2 processors.
The lawsuit comes after the two companies failed to agree to licensing terms, said Transmeta's President and Chief Executive Officer Arthur Swift. "Friendly win-win discussions between the two parties had broken down and we thought is was appropriate now to turn to the courts."
Nine of the 10 Transmeta patents invoked in the lawsuit cover basic processor functions like scheduling and addressing instructions on the chip, according to InfoWorld. The tenth patent reportedly relates to Transmeta's LongRun technology, which is used to adjust the voltage of the processor, depending on its workload.
If granted, an injunction could prevent further shipments of Intel's Core 2 Duo to Apple, which would halt the roll-out of Core 2 Duo-based MacBook and MacBook Pro systems due a little later this year. It would also freeze production of Apple's other Intel-based systems.
However, such an injunction is incredibly unlikely (and a bit sensational) due to the ramifications it would have on the entire PC industry.
Comments
However, such an injection is incredibly unlikely
I hope it's not a lethal injection.
However, such an injection is incredibly unlikely (and a bit sensational) due to the ramifications it would have on the entire PC industry.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
lol
I don't see Intel freezing the production of most of their chips for a lawsuit. If it is an infringement they'll settle out of court surely!
lol
I don't see Intel freezing the production of most of their chips for a lawsuit. If it is an infringement they'll settle out of court surely!
Indeed! that would grind the PC industry to a halt, if they didn't
Indeed! that would grind the PC industry to a halt, if they didn't
Did I hear someone say AMD?
Did I hear someone say AMD?
Bless their hearts, but I don't think AMD can hope to take up the slack without major disruptions, unless AMD contracts Intel to make their chips. It's not as if AMD can quintuple their production just like that.
And just when I thought we'd be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel...
There's an expression about that:
The light you see at the end of the tunnel might be an express train.
Violating patents for Pentium III and 4? Seems like they didn't care about their patents 7 years ago, but now that the core duo is big and involves Apple, there is money to be made in lawsuits.
Actually it appears from the original article that Transmeta and Intel have been trying to negotiate a way out of this and that the talks have broken down which has resulted in the lawsuit being filed.
And I should also point out that waiting for a company to become profitable with a product which may have a patent infringement case against it is SOP with a lot of companies. (the recent lawsuit by Apple Records against Apple as an example).
However this lawsuit could have some very interesting repercussions on Apple. If the injunction is granted I wonder what the possiblility is that Apple would look at a different CPU??
Violating patents for Pentium III and 4? Seems like they didn't care about their patents 7 years ago, but now that the core duo is big and involves Apple, there is money to be made in lawsuits.
They've been fighting about this for years.
I doubt that Apple has anything to do with any of the timing.
No more than anyone else would. They can't go back to the PPC, and there is no way that AMD could ever hope to meet any new commitments. They are behind in shipments now.
No more than anyone else would. They can't go back to the PPC, and there is no way that AMD could ever hope to meet any new commitments. They are behind in shipments now.
I guess several options could exist.
1) You're quite right about Apple not going back to PPC but they may look at the IBM Cell chip again, I found an article talking about how the cell chip in its initial configuration was not suitable for Apple because of the power use (between 30-80 watts) but the newest version works at 25 watts and is now fully compatable with the PPC instruction set.
2) They could go to AMD. The AMD 64 bit chips run at a constant voltage regardless of the number of cores on die which makes heat management easier to design for. Apple is not a "large" purchaser of chips (unlike some other PC vendors) so it could be possible for AMD to meet demands.
Speculations R Us
Sopranino
Bickering over percentages here - and a revitalised backdated claim on older tech to lend more weight to the claim on the new implementation.
C'mon Transmeta and Intel - sort it out and keep 'em coming !
Nine of the 10 Transmeta patents invoked in the lawsuit cover basic processor functions like scheduling and addressing instructions on the chip, according to InfoWorld. The tenth patent reportedly relates to Transmeta's LongRun technology, which is used to adjust the voltage of the processor, depending on its workload.
Don't AMD's chips do that as well? If so, why aren't they being sued?