Licensing - MMP Portfolio Licensing Program

It has been widely acknowledged that the MMP Portfolio contains several fundamental building blocks of modern microprocessor architecture and implementation. As a testament to this reality, marquee chip makers Intel and AMD were early to purchase MMP Portfolio licenses to cover their microprocessor designs.

In light of these early, important licensing endorsements by Intel and AMD, the market demanded greater clarity and certainty. Since modern systems contain many microprocessors, system manufacturers would remain exposed until all their parts vendors obtained licenses. Indeed, system manufacturers would be exposed not only to infringement claims but also to supply chain and product design disruptions.

The MMP Portfolio Licensing Program therefore focuses licensing requirements and royalty collection on the finished "system-level" product. A royalty-free MMP Portfolio license is also available to manufacturers of chips and other unfinished goods.

Unconstrained by associations with formal standards setting processes, the MMP Portfolio Licensing Program rewards first movers in their industry sectors with dramatic discounts. By design, this structure enables nimble and forward-thinking companies to disadvantage their competitors. Such a company is Hewlett-Packard, which became the first system manufacturer to purchase an MMP Portfolio System License.

For more information about how the MMP Portfolio Licensing Program pertains to your business, please contact us at: mmp-licensing@tplgroup.net

Licensing - MMP Portfolio Technology Background

The MMP Portfolio includes the following US patents as well as both their European and Japanese counterparts.



Protected through year of 2015, these patents protect techniques used in designing microprocessors, Digital Signal Processor (DSPs), embedded processors and System-on-Chip (SoC) implementations. The three most widely recognized patents in the portfolio are described below:

US'336: Clocking CPU and I/O Separately
The MMP Portfolio is not limited to "high speed" microprocessors. In fact, during the past year of intense study of hundreds of various microprocessor designs, no correlation at all has been found between the speed of a microprocessor and the application of US'336. Use of US'336 is prevalent across most microprocessors from low speed microcontrollers to sophisticated systems on chips. Advertised advantages include: cost reduction, instant-on execution, failsafe operation,
EMI reduction, and power savings. It is a modern requirement from a design for test ("DFT") perspective.

US'584: Multiple Instruction Fetch
Multiple Instruction Fetch architectures are the norm in environments where limiting power consumption is critical; e.g. portable products. Various techniques can be employed to achieve the Multiple Instruction Fetch, and marketing terminology includes "VLIW," "SIMD," "MIMD", "Superscalar," etc.

US'148: On-Chip Oscillator and Embedded Memory
Shares the on-chip oscillator feature with US'336, in addition to memory covering more than majority of chip. Also includes claims pertaining to multiple CPU, array or cell implementations. The vast majority of the SoC and flash microcontroller products are affected.

All or nothing.

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