Sony in Trouble for Cell Patent Infringement

Jimmy 2004 · Jul 31, 2007

Many people will be familiar with Sony's Cell Broadband Engine, the processor which powers the company's famous PS3 games console. However, a 15-year-old patent for "synchronized parallel processing with shared memory" could spell trouble for the firm if the Parallel Processing Corporation is victorious in a recent lawsuit against Sony. The Parallel Processing Corporation claims that Sony's Cell processor infringes the patent and has caused "irreparable harm and monetary damage" - the patent was originally granted to a company called International Parallel Machines on 8th October 1991, but the Parallel Processing Corporation now claims to be the "exclusive licensee" for it. If successful, this has the potential to be much more serious than the well known rumble lawsuit, considering that the Cell processor isn't something that can be easily changed for the PS3. Sony is yet to give a statement about this issue, instead saying doesn't comment on pending litigation.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

L|NK|N · Jul 31, 2007

Does this include IBM and Toshiba as well? You have to love how people are so sue happy. Maybe I should get a patent for some futuristic technology, and in 20 years when someone else makes it I can sue them for billions. ROFL at the industry.

Atech · Jul 31, 2007

What - a - load - of - bollocks.

So, what next, are they going after AMD, Cray, IBM, Intel, Sun Microsystems?

Cookies for the first person to Google five instances of prior art.

jocksteeluk · Jul 31, 2007

Id like to feel sorry for sony on this one but the fact is the have been charging Europeans $800 for the ps3 so i find it difficult to do so, not only have Sony done he research and design wrong for the Ps3 (no need for blu-ray) but also the marketing (way too expensive for the target audience) and now it turns out yet another patent infringement, it wouldn't surprise me if sony dont make profit from the ps3 for a few years after this lawsuit.

FreedomEclipse · Jul 31, 2007

wasnt it Motorola or some highly unheard of company that came up with the CELL CPU??? I swear i read the moto came up with it or they had been using it

Beertintedgoggles · Aug 1, 2007

Atech said:
Cookies for the first person to Google five instances of prior art.

You don't even need five, just one to invalidate the patent.

anticlutch · Aug 1, 2007

I hope the people trying to sue Sony fail and go bankrupt (the same goes for all the other small companies mysteriously showing up with 'exclusive patents' after someone else made the technology popular).

ktr · Aug 1, 2007

FreedomEclipse said:
wasnt it Motorola or some highly unheard of company that came up with the CELL CPU??? I swear i read the moto came up with it or they had been using it

no, Motorola is the popularly known in making (also including IBM and apple, known as the AIM alliance) the powerpc cpus.

the cell also uses the same powerpc architecture (therefore it can run linux), but the cell is made from Sony, toshiba, and IBM (known as the STI alliance).

WarEagleAU · Aug 1, 2007

Im sure all three companies did their research while developing this. I find it hard to believe folks spend billions and lots of time designing something, only to get sued for it. retards.

cjoyce1980 · Aug 1, 2007

currently sony have stolen ideas for there online services from microsoft and nintendo, it wouldn't surprise me if the whole concept for the PS3 plagiarised.

Atech · Aug 1, 2007

Beertintedgoggles said:
You don't even need five, just one to invalidate the patent.

Maybe this was an aside directed not at me but those reading my comment, but I'll elaborate:
Finding one piece of prior art would be far too easy to be worthy of a proverbial cookie.

System Name	Jimmy 2004's PC
Processor	S754 AMD Athlon64 3200+ @ 2640MHz
Motherboard	ASUS K8N
Cooling	AC Freezer 64 Pro + Zalman VF1000 + 5x120mm Antec TriCool Case Fans
Memory	1GB Kingston PC3200 (2x512MB)
Video Card(s)	Saphire 256MB X800 GTO @ 450MHz/560MHz (Core/Memory)
Storage	500GB Western Digital SATA II + 80GB Maxtor DiamondMax SATA
Display(s)	Digimate 17" TFT (1280x1024)
Case	Antec P182
Audio Device(s)	Audigy 4 + Creative Inspire T7900 7.1 Speakers
Power Supply	Corsair HX520W
Software	Windows XP Home

Processor	Kentsfield Q6600 @ 2.8GHz "I eat source code before breakfast"
Motherboard	Asus Striker Extreme 680i (NB:C55XE, SB:MCP55XE)
Cooling	Zalman 9700, 1200mm fan, 5120mm fans
Memory	8GB OCZ PC6400 - 4*2 @ 622MHz (stability problems)
Video Card(s)	Geforce 8800GTS
Storage	2* Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB - no RAID
Display(s)	Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 74SB
Case	Antec Nine Hundred + optional fans
Audio Device(s)	On board (sort of - SupremeFX ADI 1988B)
Power Supply	Corsair HW 620w
Software	Gentoo GNU+Linux amd64 (latest development kernel)

Processor	custom dupont risk chip cpu prototype
Motherboard	custom ibm x5 solid state carbon mainboard
Cooling	industrial technologies prototype dupont custom heat transfer unit
Memory	6x 2gig prototype ecc hnc ddr4
Video Card(s)	prototype low energy version nvidia 9 series unnumberd card
Storage	1tb solid state hdd
Display(s)	44 inch samsung plasma screen tv/monitor
Case	custom ibm mobile home server case
Audio Device(s)	custom Yamaha sound processing processor in spm format
Power Supply	1200watt deli cord custom made dupont type psu
Software	sun unix/windows type v

System Name	DarnGosh Edition
Processor	AMD 7800X3D
Motherboard	MSI X670E GAMING PLUS
Cooling	Thermalright AM5 Contact Frame + Phantom Spirit 120SE
Memory	2x32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO DDR5 6000 CL32-38-38-96
Video Card(s)	Asus Dual Radeon™ RX 6700 XT OC Edition
Storage	WD SN770 1TB (Boot)\| 2x 2TB WD SN770 (Gaming)\| 2x 2TB Crucial BX500\| 2x 3TB Toshiba DT01ACA300
Display(s)	LG GP850-B
Case	Corsair 760T (White) {1xCorsair ML120 Pro\|5xML140 Pro}
Audio Device(s)	Yamaha RX-V573\|Speakers: JBL Control One\|Auna 300-CN\|Wharfedale Diamond SW150
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus GX-850 80+ GOLD
Mouse	Logitech G502 X
Keyboard	Duckyshine Dead LED(s) III
Software	Windows 11 Home
Benchmark Scores	ლ(ಠ益ಠ)ლ

Processor	2500K @ 4.5GHz 1.28V
Motherboard	ASUS P8P67 Deluxe
Cooling	Corsair A70
Memory	8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance 1600 9-9-9-24 1T
Video Card(s)	eVGA GTX 470
Storage	Crucial m4 128GB + Seagate RAID 1 (1TB x 2)
Display(s)	Dell 22" 1680x1050 nothing special
Case	Antec 300
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	PC Power & Cooling 750W
Software	Windows 7 64bit Pro

Sony in Trouble for Cell Patent Infringement

Jimmy 2004

New Member

L|NK|N

Atech

New Member

jocksteeluk

New Member

FreedomEclipse

~Technological Technocrat~

Beertintedgoggles

anticlutch

ktr

WarEagleAU

Bird of Prey

cjoyce1980

Atech

New Member

Processor	Intel C2D E6420 (3.2 gHz @ 1.365v)
Motherboard	Gigabyte 965P-DS3
Cooling	Zalman CNPS9500 LED
Memory	4 x 512mb Corsair XMS2 DDR2 667
Video Card(s)	Visiontek HD 4870 512mb
Storage	200gb Maxtor SATA, 400gb WD SATA
Audio Device(s)	Audigy 2 ZS
Software	Windows XP Pro SP2

System Name	Pandemic 2020
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 "Gen 2" 2600X
Motherboard	AsRock X470 Killer Promontory
Cooling	CoolerMaster 240 RGB Master Cooler (Newegg Eggxpert)
Memory	32 GB Geil EVO Portenza DDR4 3200 MHz
Video Card(s)	ASUS Radeon RX 580 DirectX 12 DUAL-RX580-O8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video C
Storage	WD 250 M.2, Corsair P500 M.2, OCZ Trion 500, WD Black 1TB, Assorted others.
Display(s)	ASUS MG24UQ Gaming Monitor - 23.6" 4K UHD (3840x2160) , IPS, Adaptive Sync, DisplayWidget
Case	Fractal Define R6 C
Audio Device(s)	Realtek 5.1 Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair RMX 850 Platinum PSU (Newegg Eggxpert)
Mouse	Razer Death Adder
Keyboard	Corsair K95 Mechanical & Corsair K65 Wired, Wireless, Bluetooth)
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	Xbox 360 Super Elite
Processor	3.2GHz PowerPC Tri-Core Xenon
Memory	512MB 700MHz GDDR3 RAM
Video Card(s)	ATI Xenos @ 500 MHz
Storage	250GB
Display(s)	26" Samsung LCD HDTV
Case	Super Elite (COD:MW2 Edition)
Audio Device(s)	5.1
Power Supply	120w
Software	NXE