> >     "It is a principal object of the present invention to provide
    > >     apparatus and method which permits the use of 14-bit instruction
    > >     words despite the presence of only 12 I/O pins in the
    > >     microcontroller.",

    Wow! This claim is.. well.. interesting. Will no micro vendor now
    be allowed to make chips with less I/O than program word bits?

Hmm, so who did do the first serial-programmable prom micro?  Motarola in
their 6805 series?  (But that was rs232 download using essentially a tiny
"shadow kernel" in the rom area, right - entirely different and probably
patented as well.  There's more to this than meets the eye, even if the
surface technique is "obvious".

A frequent outcome of patent suits is cross-licensing agreement of assorted
intellectual property.  An arrangement that wound up with parallax being
allowed to second-source the scenix chip would be "interesting"...

BillW