(First off I am in no way implying anything but asking a question.)

Actel and edigital worked together in the past.

"

SAN DIEGO, Calif. and SUNNYVALE, Calif. - October 16, 2001 - e.Digital Corp. (OTC: EDIG), a global provider of comprehensive digital product development and designs, and Actel Corp. (Nasdaq: ACTL), a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, today announced a technology relationship that will allow e.Digital's proprietary design to be produced within Actel's ASIC-like (application-specific integrated circuit-like) eX field-programmable gate array (FPGA) devices. e.Digital's new solution is designed to increase reliability and reduce the board space required for implementation of advanced digital voice and music recorder/player functionality in small portable devices, such as portable Internet music players and personal digital jukeboxes.

"We've seen continued customer interest in our ASIC-like eX FPGAs for e-Appliance and portable applications, such as digital music players, due to the security and low power features of the architecture," said John East, president and chief executive officer at Actel. "Actel's eX FPGAs, combined with e.Digital's innovative technology, offer significant advantages in functionality, security and dynamic power consumption, propelling this solution into a broad range of next-generation e-Appliance and portable products." "

and Actel and ARM worked together.

07 March 2005

Actel and ARM Sign Landmark Agreement To Bring ARM7 Processor Family To Burgeoning FPGA Market

Unique business model extends ARM7 family processor to the mainstream FPGA designer

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., AND CAMBRIDGE, UK – Mar. 7, 2005 — Representing the first time an ARM® processor has been licensed to a programmable logic vendor for implementation as a “soft” IP core, Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL) and ARM [(LSE:ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMHY)], today announced at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC), San Francisco, that the two companies have collaborated to provide a 32-bit ARM7 ™ Thumb® family microprocessor to Actel’s broad FPGA customer base.

With the establishment of this partnership, Actel will take the unique step of delivering to developers a soft ARM7 family implementation for use in several of Actel’s FPGA families.  Targeting the fastest growing market for design-ins, this move will create the first soft core FPGA version of the ARM7 family microprocessor that can be leveraged across applications ranging from high-volume consumer applications to high-performance, high-reliability products.  As a consequence, programmable logic users will be able to access ASIC-like design flexibility, with broad third- party support and trusted IP, as well as the added programmability and security benefits of Actel FPGAs.

and Apple's IPOD uses an ARM chip.

iPod
(bookmark this page / add to del.icio.us)

CPU

CPU: ARM7TDMI

CPU Speed: dual 90 MHz embedded

Data Path: 32 bit

ROM: 32 MB

Onboard RAM: 32 MB

RAM slots: 0

Maximum RAM: 32 MB

Video

Screen: backlit LCD

Max Resolution: 1-bit 160x128

Storage

Hard Drive: 5/10/20 GB 4200 RPM

ATA Bus: ATA-5

Input/Output

Firewire: 1

Audio Out: stereo 16 bit mini

Speaker: clicker

So here is my question, If a company (fpga related) used edig's tech. without consent and it ended up in a unit (such as an mp3 player) would the mp3 player be infringing on edig's patent?

 I believe ptsc and the big 3 are going through this type of an issue right now, and I hope ptsc is validated.

glta

Tom