Android [LWN.net]

Android

Posted Mar 2, 2010 23:16 UTC (Tue) by corbet (editor, #1)
In reply to: Apple's patent attack by ajross
Parent article: Apple's patent attack

Android was named in the two actions - Windows was not. That suggests that they might be more interested in targeting one of those systems than the other.

Remember that Microsoft has invested in Apple in the past. They may have all kinds of cross-licensing deals in place.

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HTC and WinMo

Posted Mar 3, 2010 1:57 UTC (Wed) by mrpippy (guest, #57134) [Link]

Windows Mobile isn't specifically named, but the ITC complaint includes all of HTC's Windows
Mobile
phones sold in the US over the last 3 years (HD2, Imagio, Pure, Tilt 2, Touch Pro 2, Touch
Diamond/Pro).

They (and the Android phones) are accused of infringing on '263, the "Real-time signal
processing
system for serially transmitted data". It's hard to figure out what this patent actually covers, but
it
seems to be about abstracting a DSP (used to interface with a communications network) from a
higher-level driver. This could apply to the HTC-written RIL (sits below the phone API and sends
AT
commands to the radio), or to the HTC/Qualcomm AMSS firmware that runs on the radio (itself
an
ARM9 core). I suspect it is the latter, since the AMSS uses DSPs and presents serial ports to the
main
apps processor. If the AMSS is the infringing software, this means that every Qualcomm MSM
chip is
also infringing, and by extension, every single device operating on Verizon or Sprint's networks
in
the US.

As an interesting aside, the '263 patent was granted in January 2002, almost 8 years after the
filing
date in August 1994. In 1993, Apple introduced the Quadra 660AV and 840AV, 68040-based
Macs
that also had a 50 MHz AT&T DSP on the logic board. Among other uses for the DSP, it could be
paired with an inexpensive telecom adapter (the GeoPort) and used as a 14.4K modem. So Apple
has
actually shipped products that could have used this patent, although its relevance to modern
mobile
phones is pretty tenuous.

HTC and WinMo

Posted Mar 3, 2010 8:30 UTC (Wed) by niall.noigiallach (guest, #47469) [Link]

Of course a number of other Vendors had also shipped Workstations with DSP's on the main logic board before this. For example SGI had shipped the Indigo back in 1991( or was it 90?) and heck even the NextCube could be regarded as prior art. I would be very surprised if either of them didn't have some sort of API for accessing the DSP