Sony gets sued again – this time over PS3 Cell processors

Sony, oh Sony, when will you launch a gaming console that won’t get slapped with yet another lawsuit? Parallel Processing Corporation (PPC), a California-based company, sued Sony and accused the creators of the PlayStation for infringing on its patent of Synchronized Parallel Processing with Shared Memory (Patent no. 5,056,000), and using the said patent on its Cell processors.

The five-page complaint that PPC filed against Sony claims that Sony’s powerful Cell processors used the company’s patented technology, enabling Sony’s Cell chips to breakdown processes into smaller ones, all running at the same time and in different parallel processors for faster computing.

The patent was signed and approved on October 8, 1991, and was awarded to International Parallel Machines. Parallel Processing Corporation claims to be the exclusive licensee of the patent, and is seeking damages and attorney’s fees. But the scarier part? Impounding and destruction of all Sony products that infringe on the same patent.

With past lawsuits ranging from rumble controllers, LAN technology, and even employees demanding for overtime pay, we certainly hope that Sony and the PlayStation 3 come out of this mess unscathed. We still have Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII to look forward to after all.

Sony, oh Sony, when will you launch a gaming console that won’t get slapped with yet another lawsuit? Parallel Processing Corporation (PPC), a California-based company, sued Sony and accused the creators of the PlayStation for infringing on its patent of Synchronized Parallel Processing with Shared Memory (Patent no. 5,056,000), and using the said patent on its Cell processors.

The five-page complaint that PPC filed against Sony claims that Sony’s powerful Cell processors used the company’s patented technology, enabling Sony’s Cell chips to breakdown processes into smaller ones, all running at the same time and in different parallel processors for faster computing.

The patent was signed and approved on October 8, 1991, and was awarded to International Parallel Machines. Parallel Processing Corporation claims to be the exclusive licensee of the patent, and is seeking damages and attorney’s fees. But the scarier part? Impounding and destruction of all Sony products that infringe on the same patent.

With past lawsuits ranging from rumble controllers, LAN technology, and even employees demanding for overtime pay, we certainly hope that Sony and the PlayStation 3 come out of this mess unscathed. We still have Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII to look forward to after all.