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+Fujitsu, Panasonic, JVC, Toshiba, NEC…
Long delayed, combination of ring oscillator and CPU, contested as obvious
UC Berkeley, Center for Entrepreneurship and TechnologyIEOR 190G Patent Engineering, Feb 2, 2009
George Shaw, MS EECS
Fall 1988 Group forms to develop 32-bit CPU - Russell Fish, Chuck Moore CPU (patents 1989) - George Shaw Systems,
Software - Others
Software, Applications
OKI Semiconductor prototype FPGA
Nanotronics, Inc. 1991-1994 Patriot Scientific 1994 – TPL Group later…
Due to the risk of failure, OKI won’t let Moore & Fish build aspects of the patented design, at issue, mostly, the variable speed clock.
Prototypes work!
CPU not licensed after 18 months…
Moore and Fish go separate ways.
Fish’s rights get acquired by Nanotronics who gets acquired by Patriot Scientific, who pay for patent work
Delaying office actions to keep patent expenditures low for the moment
Delays expire, finally claims are filed and over several years in late 1990s, seven patents granted, 7-10 years after filing.
Who owns the patents? Moore or Patriot (Fish)? Who gets to license? Who makes money? Who invented
what? Patriot sues TPL (Moore) After 18 months, they kiss and make up. TPL licenses and
they split the money (after expenses).
TPL finds many, many companies are infringing on patents. Intel and AMD are first to license.
Delay in processing and enforcing the patents allowed technology to come into wide use.
Variable speed clock makes fast, cheap devices (most interesting patent)
The technology they developed is in your home, on your desk, in your car… it's in your pocket. Its in computers, cameras, printers, and cell phones.
Silicon transistor speed varies with manufacturing process, voltage, temperature
In 1989 speed ratios: Process variations 2:1 Voltage 1.3:1 Temperature 1.1:1
Overall ~3:1Must design for worst-case conditions
Speed grading is costly Give up performance to ensure reliable operation
(over-clocking today)
Around since vacuum tune eraOscillators are precise and are expensiveOften CPU only needs to be fast enough
Inverter:
Ring oscillator used to test process speed
Ring oscillator connected to a CPU and designed to operate no faster than the CPU
Can run as fast as possible but won’t run too fast—or can run slower if desired
Saves $$ in oscillator cost, circuit board space, and power
Automatically varies in speed by process, voltage and temperature (no special circuitry)
Obviousness—but it hadn’t been done. Risk?Moore limited success, Patriot did not use it. Specification somewhat vague. Specification complete enough to teach usage.Not usable because not used.Claim construction—specific wordings, trying to
narrow application.Patents not enforced for 7 years after grant.