AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) is widely known as one of the prominent competitors against Nvidia in terms of graphics processors. While the latter is the reigning champion, AMD is looking to further its cause with the release of new GPUs coupled with pulling down the companies infringing on its patents. It is effectively looking to put an end to the sale of such infringed products.
Back in January, AMD filed a complaint with regards to products (such as TVs, smartphones, IoT devices) manufactured by LG, Vizio (now owned by LeEco), MediaTek, and Sigma Designs, alleging them of violating their graphics patents. The chipmaker’s filing states that these companies infringe on three patents, which are said to be spanning across fundamental aspects of contemporary graphics processing. This includes concepts such as unified shaders, parallel pipeline graphics system and an in-progress patent with these two concepts combined. Two of these patents originally belong to ATI Technologies, a semiconductor giant it bought back in 2006.
In the filing made with the U.S International Trade Commission (ITC), AMD asked the regulatory body to investigate products made by these companies. Fast forward a couple months, the US ITC has agreed to investigate into companies who have allegedly infringed on AMD’s graphic patents. The commission also released a press release to intimate its course of action, stating that it would now be investigating “certain graphics systems, components thereof, and consumer products containing the same under section 337”. The official release continued to add,
The USITC will make a final determination in the investigation at the earliest practicable time. Within 45 days after institution of the investigation, the USITC will set a target date for completing the investigation.
The company holds a major chunk of market share in the gaming ecosystem, with its chips powering the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs as well. And it is looking to maintain the same by alleging hardware manufacturers of infringing on their technology. The sad part is, if the ITC rules in favor of the chipmaker, then the aforementioned players will have to retract any products infringing on their patents from the market.
This will be a significant blow for LG, Vizio, and others, but would it definitely help AMD in reigning the market? That is also debatable as other chipmakers have developed upgraded chips with newer architecture or would’ve done the same until the investigation into the hardware makers ends in the usual 15 odd months.We’d like to know your opinion on AMD’s move as well, so comment your thoughts on the same down below.
