On 4/13/06, Mike Hord <mike.hord@gmail.com> wrote:
> Grrrr.  Read the patent abstracts for the patent numbers cited in the
> suit.  Essentially, Microchip patented the concept of an n-bit
> microcontroller with n or fewer I/O pins.
>
> Which leaves me wondering about 8-pin Atmel parts.  6 I/O pins...
> have they had a suit there, too?
>
> Mike H.
>

They filed patent suit against Zilog sometime ago for the low pin
count Z8.

Maybe Atmel already paid some money to Microchip. ;-)

I am not so sure about FreeScale which has the 8-pin MCU as well
(HC908QT series). Maybe they also paid. ;-)

Regards,
Xiaofan

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