Parallel Processing Corp. is asking a federal court to order Sony to destroy its PlayStation 3 videogame consoles, which PPC claims infringes on its patents for microprocessor technology.
PPC filed the lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in Tyler, Texas. The suit claims that the cell processor, developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM, violates PPC's patent for "synchronized parallel processing with shared memory." The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the patent in October 1991.
Sony on Tuesday didn't respond to a request for comment.
The PPC technology breaks up a program into individual tasks, which are executed in parallel on separate processors. The technology speeds up the time it takes to execute an application. Because of the alleged infringement, PPC is seeking damages and wants all PlayStation 3s "impounded and destroyed."
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News source: Yahoo!
PPC filed the lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in Tyler, Texas. The suit claims that the cell processor, developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM, violates PPC's patent for "synchronized parallel processing with shared memory." The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the patent in October 1991.
Sony on Tuesday didn't respond to a request for comment.
The PPC technology breaks up a program into individual tasks, which are executed in parallel on separate processors. The technology speeds up the time it takes to execute an application. Because of the alleged infringement, PPC is seeking damages and wants all PlayStation 3s "impounded and destroyed."
View: Full Article News source: Yahoo!
You sure you commented on the right article? I don't see a Microsoft or Nintendo product name in the title.
Last time I checked "winner" was not synonymous with the term "dead last".
You sure you commented on the right article? I don't see a Microsoft or Nintendo product name in the title.
Sony is trying to do what with the PS3? Parallel Processing wants to destroy what product?
Pip'
a) Why aren't they suing IBM and Toshiba since they are partners in the design and development of the chip?
b) Why wait this long? If they really wanted to 'protect' their IP, why didn't they sue Sony 3-4 years ago when the cell was being developed?
(PPC isn't looking to actually get PS3 units removed from the market...they are looking to get paid and enter into a licensing agreement with Sony)
Pip.
Pip.
a) IBM is selling it., so they should be an equal target Not sure about Toshiba though.
b) Maybe not, but details about the cell were available 2-3 years ago, before the PS3's release. There's not much more we know now that we didn't know a few years ago.
As far as I can tell, Sony is the assignee to all Cell-related patents/applications. So yes, it makes sense to sue them. They could sue Toshiba and IBM as well, but why pick a fight with the whole team when you can fight just one player?
If you look at the patent issued to International Parallel Machines, Inc, assignee of the patent, it's a pretty damned barebone patent, arguably applicable to ANY SMP based system. It's also the ONLY patent issued to IPM. On the other hand, Sony has many patents or applications covering a variety of mechanisms and design aspects of the Cell.
Anyways, you can't sue (and win a settlement from) someone for a technology that's being developed. Companies don't sit around and advertise that level of detail anyways. What you can do is hire some patent lawyers and have them troll through patents of big corporations looking for a big score and then make a big media ruckus when you find something.
I think it's safe to say they already lost the trust of mass people with the PS3.
whats next?...have the first born killed.....lol
wtf... the ps3 doesn't have more then 1 central processing unit in it wtf are they talking about ?
Thats still doesn't explain why they they "on separate processors" meaning more then one processor, I've never known a core to be referred to as a single "processor" ...
FX-74 is parallel on separate processors.
I'm not quite sure what their point is, yeah ok, there's 9 synergistic processing elements on the CBE which each it's own LS (local storage) of 256k's of memory, the direct memory part i understand, the misinterpretations of a "processor" i however, do not.
This does also undermine not only sony but IBM as the main developer of CBE as they and other companies offer it in other products such as mercury http://www.mc.com/microsites/cell/ .
I do believe if this moves anywhere, I'm sure IBM will just move in and tell them bugger off. Whoever this is seeking this discharge of sony is money orientated and not for the purpose of benefiting technology so i'm pretty sure they will lose it.
Yet PPC have noticed Sony have sold some numbers, found a way that the PlayStation 3 might infringe on their already Patented solution, and are now requesting that Sony "Impound and Destroy" all PlayStation 3 units, absolute nonsense.
I think Sony should tell them in the politest possible terms to go f*** themselves.
Why arent PPC taking IBM to court for using the full 8 synthetic cores of the CELL in other products, why arent they suing Microsoft for using a triple core architecture, why arent they taking everyone to court who uses Synchornized Parallel Processing using Distributed Memory, isnt every single Dual/Quad core CPU and every other PC doing that now anyway!? to some extent, so i guess if they tried hard enough, they could probably take us all to court and request our entertainment be Impounded and Destroyed.
PPC = Losers!
xbox 360's processor doesn't have the LS of direct memory for each processing core if i remember right, but i do agree it's bs they should f*** off with a silly money orientated case like this.
i'm not quite sure what they really mean but like you're saying i'll just point you in the right direct, pc's as we know at the moment use shared memory access not direct like the LS on the CBE SPU's which is direct which it mentions.
Much like the Amazon 1-click buy system. Dont just blame the companies that exploit the system.
It was your damn patent office that gave them the right to do it.
Go sink in the stink Parallel Processing Corp. !!!
Does the "Parallel Processing Corporation" own a world wide patent? How the hell do they pay for that? they don't "make" or "create" anything?
maybe a settlement for millions will shut them up, or if they are really want ps3 destroyed, a CPU change will come into effect, and the consoles recalled
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