Intel patent infringement case appeal failed, may be required to pay $2.18 billion in compensation to VLSI

In April of this year, a jury in the Federal Court of Waco, Texas, ruled that Intel did not infringe two patents related to computer acceleration methods of the semiconductor design company VLSI, thus avoiding a compensation of three billion dollars. These two patents originally belonged to NXP Semiconductors but were later owned by VLSI. The content of the patent is related to Intel’s Speed ​​Shift technology. This power management technology allows the processor to directly communicate with the power control unit and cooperate with the operating system to complete the state switch as quickly as 1 millisecond, to improve the switching speed between different loads, and ultimately improve the efficiency to obtain the best performance.

There are many lawsuits between Intel and VLSI, and not every time compensation can be avoided. In March of this year, in another lawsuit in the same court, another jury ruled that Intel paid VLSI $2.18 billion in damages for two other patents. Of these two patents, one relates to processor frequency management, and the other relates to a method of reducing the operating voltage of memory. Intel subsequently filed an appeal, but according to Reuters, the court has now rejected Intel’s appeal request. If Intel has no choice but to appeal again, it is likely to have to pay this sum to VLSI.