Firm Sues Sony Over Cell Processor

An anonymous reader writes that earlier this month, Sony received word of a lawsuit from a Newport Beach company called Parallel Processing. They've filed against the electronics giant alleging that the Cell processor, used in the PlayStation 3, infringes on a patent they own. They've made the somewhat outrageous demand that every infringing chip (and console) be 'impounded and destroyed'. From the article at Next Generation: "The patent, 'Synchronized Parallel Processing with Shared Memory' was issued in October 1991. It describes a high-speed computer that breaks down a program 'into smaller concurrent processes running in different parallel processors' and resynchronizes the program for faster processing times ... Parallel Processing said that Sony's alleged actions have caused 'irreparable harm and monetary damage' to the company."

Comments

Re:hah

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, let's all stroke ours Wiis over this news.

Re:Infringes my "electronic brain" patent

[u-bend]

Dear brain processor dude: this is God. Cease and desist. I own the patent on brains. Have a nice day.

Re:Infringes my "electronic brain" patent

[TheRaven64]

I believe your patent, filed in 4004BC, expired 5991 years ago.

Re:hah

[Anonymous Coward]

That's okay, Parallel Processing could only have found out about the patent infringement by violation of the DMCA and illegal hacking of Sonys PS3 - so they'll be going to jail for a long time.

Re:Cray had prior art/implementation a decade earl

[sjf]

More to the point, can we ensure that those who modded this up never get mod points again ?

Re:Infringes my "electronic brain" patent

[Anonymous Coward]

but the copyright for the software running the brain (the trully interesting stuff) is still in effect - remember liftime of author + 70 years.

"Impounding and destorying"

[nurb432]

One rule of suits: Demand the moon, negotiate for the sky, but be willing to accept the ground.

Re:Infringes my "electronic brain" patent

[Anonymous Coward]

The copyright expired in 1952, seven decades after Nietzsche pronounced God dead in 1882. The first commercially sold computer, UNIVAC I, was also delivered in 1952. Coincidence? I think not.

Re:Infringes my "electronic brain" patent

[drawfour]

2 Peter 3:8 says, "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." I'm sure He opts for "a thousand years are like a day", so he's had the patent just over 6 days. He still has a LONG time left on His patent!

Re:What's next?

[rizzo320]

look at the site -- they make PLC's, not general-purpose processors

Yes, it does seem they make "Patent Lawsuit Cases" :-)