back to article Xockets rockets Nvidia: Blackwell debut threatened by DPU patent claims

Nvidia is embroiled in an antitrust'n'patent lawsuit, which alleges the GPU giant colluded with Microsoft and the intellectual property risk management firm RPX to rip off the data processing unit (DPU) developer Xockets' designs. The case [6:24-cv-453], filed in the western federal district of Texas — a haven for patent suits …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Especially Microsoft..

    .. ripping off technology it has been shown?

    Say it ain't so..

  2. The Dogs Meevonks Silver badge

    Oh look... here comes the....

    Inevitable buyout to acquire patents and IP... often after bankrupting said company by stealing said IP and forcing them to sue, racking up costs that could easily bankrupt them before it ever sees a resolution... then they swoop in to 'purchase' the IP, promise to continue to support companies existing customers and then turning round and say... nah... fuck all of you, we've got what we'd already stolen for peanuts.

    1. DS999 Silver badge

      Re: Oh look... here comes the....

      More likely it is just some trolls trying to cash in.

      The description of the patent sounds awfully generalized to me, and if that's what the meat of it is it should be invalidated for that reason.

  3. Blackjack Silver badge

    [At a high level, they describe architectures for "offloading, accelerating, and isolating data-intensive computing operations from server processors" at line speeds.]

    I am quite sure computers have been able to do that way before 2012.

    1. Chris Gray 1

      x87

      The earliest I can think of were the floating point chips. The most recognizable name would be the x87 chips (e.g. 8087) from Intel, but my gut tells me that wasn't the earliest. Something about decimal math...

      1. An_Old_Dog Silver badge

        Re: x87

        The KE8-E Extended Arithmetic Element added hardware floating point computations to the PDP-8 computer in the 1960s -- "offloading" those operations from rhe CPU.

        The PπCEON computer (1970s) had a relatively-slow CPU, but used a set of two more-powerful CPUs to handle all the I/O.

        1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

          Re: x87

          I had an old ICL/3 Rivers Perq from 1979, and it had a Z80 dedicate to the I/O too!

    2. mark l 2 Silver badge

      Their patent just describes what GPU's and FPU's have been doing for decades so how is this even patentable? Oh wait its the US patent office so of course it was granted a patent.

  4. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    So, it's going to be handbags at dawn, then ?

    My, I'm beginning to think that I should invest in popcorn futures . . .

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    a haven for patent suits in America

    Wasn't the 'Eastern District of Texas' the haven for Patent Suits in the USA? This is back in the day of SCO suing everyone under the Sun (but not Sun Microsystems)...

    Ok, a little research shows that BOTH districts are up to their necks in Patent Suits 23% of all US Patent suits are filed in the Eastern (Marshall) District and Western (Waco) District.

    https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/top-patent-venues-are-two-steps-ahead-of-judge-shopping-guidance

    I guess that is where all those unemployed lawyers go to eke out a living? (And pay no State Income Tax)

    IMHO, it is time for Texas to be thrown out of the USA. It is a cesspit of crime and political malfeasance. Watch out Texans. The State Gubbermint is coming for your vote. They don't want you to vote Ted 'Cancun' Cruz out of the Senate...

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: a haven for patent suits in America

      "Mexico was so desperate it went to war with the US to get rid of Texas. The US lost and had to take them. To their credit, the Mexicans gave them even more land as a consolation prize. Anything else you hear is revisionism."

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