Nvidia and AMD Sued Over Power Management

Noisiv · **Memory**: 4GB OCZ 5-4-4-4-12

More lulz from the US patent system:

Power Management Solutions, a Frisco- Texas-based company with no traceable corporate history, claims that it is entitled to damages relating to patent number 5,504,909, which the company says is infringed by AMD and Nvidia.

The patent in question describes the idea to control electricity flow via on and off switches "between the co-resident functional circuit I/O nets and the integrated circuit I/O pads" as well as between internal and external ICs. The basic idea covers power being routed "from an external power supply through the power gating means to the internal functional circuit" using switches and a second electrical signal is being employed to control "the coupling action in the power gating means."

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd...l#xtor=RSS-181

deltatux · 04-09-2012, 19:50 | posts: 18,785 | Location: Toronto, Canada

So sounds like every single CPU/GPU out there since 2005?

deltatux

Agent-A01 · 04-09-2012, 19:56 | posts: 5,643 | Location: USA

How sad, they wont win regardless

CronoGraal · 04-09-2012, 20:21 | posts: 3,438 | Location: Sweden

cute

Chillin · 04-09-2012, 20:25 | posts: 5,902 | Location: Chilling

I have no doubt that there are a million items of prior art to this, not to mention that I'm sure Nvidia's/AMD's implementation is quite different than how the patent pictures.

PhazeDelta1 · 04-09-2012, 20:43 | posts: 9,356 | Location: 90° N

at least its not about apple.

sykozis · 04-09-2012, 21:15 | posts: 13,500 | Location: US East Coast

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chillin

I have no doubt that there are a million items of prior art to this, not to mention that I'm sure Nvidia's/AMD's implementation is quite different than how the patent pictures.

If you read the patent description....it covers most electronics devices on the market since the 70's..... Oh yeah, and the company that filed the suits, according to the USPTO, has no legal claim to the patent anyway. (The patent expires in 2016 btw...)

Every electronic device has some sort of power management that operates in the manor described in the patent.... I'm pretty sure nVidia's lawyers will jump at the chance to point out that the filing company has no legal claim to the patent.... I mean, c'mon, these guys went toe-to-toe with Intel and won.....