A8X
Latest
Jury rules Apple owes $234 million for University of Wisconsin patents
Apple's loss of a patent infringement case to the University of Wisconsin could turn out to be a costly one, as a jury ruled today that it owes the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation $234 million. The technology at issue is used for A7, A8 and A8X processors (found inside the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 series, iPad Air, iPad Mini 2, Apple TV 4 and other devices), and is supposed to increase efficiency. Apple told Reuters that it plans to appeal the ruling, but had no further comment. It had argued that WARF deserved a total fee of less than the $110 million Intel paid in a settlement over the patents, but the jury decided differently. While it can certainly handle the financial hit ,the trouble may not stop there -- WARF has also filed a lawsuit against Apple for its new A9 CPUs that are inside the new iPhone 6s family and iPad Pro. Update: WARF managing director Carl Gulbrandsen said "The jury recognized the seminal computer processing work that took place on our campus. This decision is great news for the inventors, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and for WARF." [Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images[
Apple found liable for using University of Wisconsin's patent
Apple can't win every patent lawsuit it's involved with. Here's a good case in point: the tech giant has been found liable of using technology patented by the University of Wisconsin in 1998 without the proper permission. To be precise, that technology was designed to improve chip efficiency as you can see in this USPTO filing, and it was used in iPhones and iPads. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) filed a case against Intel back in 2008 for using the same patent, but it was immediately settled out of court. It launched the lawsuit against Cupertino in January last year.
The next big iPad reportedly uses a souped-up iPhone 6 processor
Last year, both the iPad Air and Retina iPad mini used nearly the same A7 chip that you saw in the iPhone 5s. That wasn't exactly a problem, but it was a bit disappointing if you were hoping for some extra oomph in bigger iOS devices. You may not have to worry about getting similar parts this year, though. Taiwanese site Apple.club.tw has posted photos that reportedly show the next big iPad's motherboard, including what looks like a shiny new A8X processor. If history is any indication, that X means that it's a tangibly faster upgrade to the iPhone CPU that could involve improved graphics, a higher clock speed or other new (though not revolutionary) tricks. The club also claims that the new board has 2GB of RAM (twice as much memory as you see in the current iPad), although it's hard to verify this without a closer look. This probably won't prompt an upgrade if you're happy with the tablet you have -- assuming it's accurate in the first place, of course -- but it may give you something extra to look forward to at Apple's October 16th event.
