Posts Tagged: "Computers"

Computers, processors, memories and transmission equipment are devices or machines. All these machines, as configured systems, have a documented history of addressing concrete technical problems that were difficult to overcome.  Ultimately, computing machines are characterized by what they do, or by their architecture. This article illustrates some of the historical issues in developing programmed and programmable machines.

The use of a mathematical formula in a claim can trigger a 35 USC 101 rejection or invalidation of the patented claim. However, the role of mathematics in physics and in inventions has changed dramatically over the last 50 years. Computers are programmed to operate on the numbers to perform a defined task, such as filtering or demodulation, by performing calculations in a certain order and at a certain speed. Cellphones, DVD players, telephone sets, 3D printers, cameras, MRI machines and the like are in essence computers with an A/D and D/A converter and/or transducers.

A computer is a machine, yet there is an ongoing trend to “anthropomorphize” computers. That is: functions that are performed by humans are said to be able to be performed by computers. Anyone who has done any serious programming knows that is not how it works. Let me explain. Steps that humans can do almost mindlessly, for instance changing paragraph numbers in a text, may be excruciatingly difficult as programming steps. That is because computers are machines that process signals that follow very strict and inflexible routines that have no concept of what the signals mean.

Unlike classical computing, which relies on bits that take on values of either 1 or 0 in order to process information, quantum computing relies on qubits. Qubits can take the distinguishable 1 or 0 value, but unlike classical bits, there are aspects of quantum mechanics, which make qubits much more useful in certain applications. One unique element of qubits are their ability to take on a superposition, meaning that a single qubit can be in multiple states at a single moment in the same way that a light can behave as a wave or a particle at the molecular level. Entanglement, or the state in which two qubits can be inextricably linked even when separated by great distances, is another effect of quantum mechanics which has implications for computing. Superposition and entanglement would allow a quantum computer to rapidly perform calculations which could never be completed by a classical computer, such as finding the factors of a number with more than 500 digits, unlocking a new world in data encryption and analysis.

In 2014, HP placed 20th out of all companies filing patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, earning 1,631 patents, an increase of more than 10 percent over its 2013 results. The patent portfolio analysis tools available to us through Innography show that HP has earned 469 patents in the most recent quarter and 1,355 so far this year… The visualization of the visualizing conditions information technology utilized by an entire enterprise is the focus of U.S. Patent Application No. 20150304181, titled Visualizing Conditions of Information Technology Environments. It claims a method for visualizing conditions of information technology (IT) environments. This visualization system is intended to improve troubleshooting techniques in IT environments which use a large number of virtual machines having no physical location.

Don’t be afraid to make the technical disclosure long, dense and difficult to read, at least for those without technical training. In my opinion one of the biggest reasons the Supreme Court has embarked upon this path to render much innovation patent ineligible is because they actually understand the inventions in question. In Bilski, for example it was little more than thinking, observing and acting. In Alice they convinced themselves it was just little more than ledger accounting. Dumbing down the technical disclosure so even a Justice of the Supreme Court can understand is a mistake, at least in my humble opinion.

Over the next several weeks the USPTO will award U.S. Patent 9,200,000, which will occur just less than 8 months after U.S. Patent No. 9,000,000 was awarded. At this pace the ten million threshold will come sometime in June 2018. Why even think about U.S. Patent No. 10,000,000 at this time? The simple answer is because it will add one more digit – an eighth digit – to utility patent numbers. Since the dawn of the computer age, computer systems have handled only 7 digit patent numbers. Without deliberate consideration and action moving to an eighth digit may not be as smooth a transition as you may want to believe.

Perhaps the most interesting characteristic of the GeForce GTX 950 is its low price. Nvidia has typically stayed out of the low end budget GPU processing units, content to leave that sector to both AMD and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC). However, the GeForce GTX 950 retails for $160, representing a serious foray into the low end GPU market which covers most units selling for under $200. It’s not optimal for video games which utilize 4K resolutions but models handling those resolution sizes can cost many hundreds of dollars per unit, made worse by the fact that 1080p is still the pixel resolution standard for video gaming so the extra firepower is largely unnecessary as of yet.

A partnership between Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) and Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) has resulted in the development of a new non-volatile memory called 3D XPoint (pronounced “crosspoint”). The improved characteristics of 3D XPoint compared to NAND flash are on an entirely different order of magnitude. The increased endurance means that 3D XPoint would be able to undergo millions of write cycles whereas NAND can only handle tens of thousands before the component starts to deteriorate. Both Intel and Micron compare the speed gains of the memory chip to reducing the amount of time that it takes to travel on a flight from San Francisco to Beijing from 12 hours down to 43 seconds.

Intel recently introduced the world to the Compute Stick, a palm-sized device with an HDMI plug offering two gigabytes of memory, 32 gigabytes of storage space and runs Windows 8.1 as operating software; another version of the Compute Stick which will release in June offers an Ubuntu OS. This stick computer comes standard with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity and a 64-bit quad-core CPU, supporting processing power comparable to tablet computers. A quick look at Intel’s intellectual property in this area shows us that the company had long been considering the use of television displays as remote screens for computer systems.

The price index of personal computing has dropped by greater than 40 percent since 2007; during that time, the average consumer price index rose by about 10 percent. Computer software and wireless telephone technologies have also seen price index reductions. although theirs are much less substantial. Interestingly, the only area of tech related to the digital age where the price index hasn’t fallen in those years is Internet bandwidth provided by Internet service providers.

The key to any software patent application is to describe the invention with enough technical detail, system specifics and process information so that a computer programmer could take the disclosure and code the software without having to make any independent, creative decisions. Essentially, you want your patent application to be a design document. This is critical because it is the design of the software — the architecture of the system, how the algorithms are strung together, the rules, calculations and manipulations — that are patentable. Software code is not patentable. You can and should get a copyright on the software code as written, but the invention does not reside in the code. The computer programmer is merely a translator that takes your invention and writes it into code that the computer can execute.