VIA vs. Apple

VIA於2011.9.22.向美國國際貿易委員會(ITC)和德拉瓦地方法院指控Apple的iPhone、iPad、iPod、Apple TV產品線，以及相關軟體侵犯了其與微處理器功\能性有關的專利技術。
本案的系爭專利有：US6253312、US6253311及US6754810等3件。

US6253312
Title : Method and apparatus for double operand load
Filing Date : 1998.8.7.
Issue Date : 2001.6.26.
Abstract :
An apparatus and method are provided for concurrently loading single-precision operands into registers in a microprocessor floating point register file. The apparatus includes translation logic, data logic, and write back logic. The translation logic receives a load macro instruction prescribing an address, and decodes the load macro instruction into a double load micro instruction. The double load micro instruction directs the microprocessor to retrieve the two single-precision operands from the address and to load the two single-precision operands into the two floating point registers. The data logic, coupled to the translation logic, executes the double load micro instruction and retrieves the two single-precision operands from the address. The write back logic, coupled to the data logic, loads the two single-precision operands into the two floating point registers during a single write cycle.

US6253311
Title : Instruction set for bi-directional conversion and transfer of integer and floating point data
Filing Date : 1997.11.29.
Issue Date : 2001.6.26.
Abstract :
An apparatus and method for bi-directional format conversion and transfer of data between integer and floating point registers is provided. A floating point register is configured to store floating point data, and integer data, in a variety of numerical formats. Data is moved in and out of the floating point register as integer data, and is converted into floating point format as needed. Separate processor instructions are provided for format conversion and data transfer to allow conversion and transfer operations to be separated.

US6754810
Title : Instruction set for bi-directional conversion and transfer of integer and floating point data
Filing Date : 2002.4.10.
Issue Date : 2004.6.22.
Abstract :
An apparatus and method for bi-directional format conversion and transfer of data between integer and floating point registers is provided. A floating point register is configured to store floating point data, and integer data, in a variety of numerical formats. Data is moved in and out of the floating point register as integer data, and is converted into floating point format as needed. Separate processor instructions are provided for format conversion and data transfer to allow conversion and transfer operations to be separated.

Smart的看法
VIA也對Apple提出侵權訴訟，顯然這場戰爭己經成為整個集團的戰事了，戰線從點延伸到面，而VIA的這3個專利，從USPTO的資料顯示，其最原始的申請人都是IP First LLC這家公司。
在對Apple的長期抗戰中，HTC不僅傾全集團之力求勝，而且還買了不少專利做為武器，包括買S3，看來Apple這下不好玩了。