In the High Court of England and Wales, Intel just won the case R2 Semiconductor filed against it. R2 alleges that Intel’s voltage regulation technology infringes on a patent it owns and wants to stop the sale of Intel processors that use it.
This technology is designed to protect the chip from damage or degradation in case of overvoltage, and Intel uses it for its 10th to 12th-generation Intel Core processors. R2 Semiconductor says that Intel is violating its patent by integrating it into these chips without a license, but Intel argues that R2 Semiconductor’s patents are invalid.
Unfortunately for R2 Semiconductor, the English court sided with Intel, with Judge Hacon of the Patents Court saying in the conclusion of the Approved Judgement [PDF], “The Patent is invalid for lack of inventive step over Sun. Had it been valid, it would have been infringed.”
Sun refers to Jian Sun, the lead researcher on ‘3D Power Delivery for Microprocessors and High-Performance ASICs’, published in 2007, and whose research Intel uses for its chips.
While the CPU giant has won the fight in the UK, it lost against R2 in German courts, causing some Intel chips to be banned from Germany. Nevertheless, the case is still under appeal, and we have no word yet on whether the higher court will side with R2 or reverse the decision in Intel’s favor. Other Intel subsidiaries are also facing R2 Semiconductor in French and Italian courts with the same case, and the latter is also targeting manufacturers that use Intel chips, like Dell and Fujitsu.
Interestingly, the patent fight concerns on-chip voltage regulation on the 10th to 12th-generation Intel chips — technology that will stop the processor from frying itself if it receives higher voltage than expected. Intel is grappling with significant instability issues with its 13th and 14th-gen chips. It is due to an erroneous microcode that makes the CPU request for higher-than-normal voltage levels, damaging it. Voltage regulation technology should protect against those instances, but we do not know if the patented technology that R2 Semiconductor alleges Intel used can be found in the affected processors.
Although the company has already had its win in the UK, it is still a long way from finally settling this issue, especially with the appeal in Germany and new cases in France and Italy. Aside from this ongoing case, it’s also facing the probability of another class action lawsuit, this time stemming from the CPU instability issues on the Raptor Lake CPUs.
Intel has been facing headwinds recently, with lawsuits, issues with its processors, and competition from AMD’s strong Ryzen processor lineups. It must get things in line soon or risk falling behind and handing the x86 torch to its long-time rival.
