CAMBRIDGE, England -- Embedded processor core supplier ARM Ltd. today announced it was expanding its patent infringement suit against picoTurbo Inc., a Silicon Valley startup licensing intellectual property to ASIC design companies and system-on-chip developers.
ARM said it has amended its complaint to cover picoTurbo's new 320bit pT120 processor, as well as the pT100 and pT110 products covered in its original complaint. Four new patents have been added to the U.S. lawsuit. The suit now accuses two-year-old picoTurbo of violating seven ARM patents.
Milpitas, Calif.-based picoTurbo is aiming its 16- and 32-bit RISC cores at high-volume chip designs for consumer electronics, multimedia, automotive, networking and communications products. The company claims its products have the capability to execute the ARMv4T instruction set with higher performance and lower power consumption than other implementations.
ARM is also accusing picoTurbo of unfair competition and false advertising in its promotion of the pT120, pT100, and pT110.
"Patent infringement is not about making an exact copy," said David MacKay, general counsel of ARM in Cambridge. "Any design that falls within any of ARM's patent claims violates our intellectual property rights, even if this design is derived independently, such as in a 'cleanroom' environment," he asserted. ARM said it holds more than 60 U.S. patents in the area of RISC microprocessors and related equipment and methods.
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