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Software is embodied in the cpu: Fail! | 364 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Software is embodied on the hard drive: Fail!
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 04 2013 @ 11:25 PM EST

Facts:

    The hard drive is physical, like paper.
    The only thing that exists on the hard drive is a magnetic toggle, like the lead we put on paper.
    Software is nothing more then the words on the paper.
The words have no physical embodiment. They are nothing more then abstract meanings in our thoughts.

The software is no different.

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Software is embodied in the cpu: Fail!
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 04 2013 @ 11:29 PM EST

The facts:

    The cpu is physical, like the telegraph!
    The cpu operates by having electricity run through it's pathways!
    Nothing but electricity moves through the CPU!
I believe it's well established Law that electricity flowing - such as through the telegraph - is not patentable subject matter.

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Software is embodied in the memory: Fail!
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 04 2013 @ 11:31 PM EST

Call it memory, call it hard drive, the facts are:

    Memory is the same as the hard drive.
    It is a magnetic toggle on a physical device that can store a magnetic field!
    The same reasoning that applied to the hard drive applies to RAM storage!

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Software is embodied in the data structures: Fail!
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 04 2013 @ 11:35 PM EST

If by "data structures" you mean "hard drive, RAM" - already covered.

If by "data structures" you mean the arrays embodied in the programming language all you're doing is pointing to an abstract concept embodied within an abstract concept.

You might as well claim the abstract concept of a "chapter" exists in a book. Nope, it doesn't. Just because we see a title "chapter 2" doesn't alter the fact that it's nothing more then lead on paper that we give mental meaning to.

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Software is embodied in the pattern of signal: Fail
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 04 2013 @ 11:41 PM EST

Software, as a pattern of signals, is no different then the pattern of the message:

    .... . .-.. .-.. ---
    .-- --- .-. .-.. -..
as applied to the telegraph.

I have absolutely no doubt the Supreme's would reject any morse message, no matter how complex, to be patented.

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Software is embodied in the combination of all previous: Fail
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 04 2013 @ 11:50 PM EST

When you add 5 abstract things together and pile them all on top of each other:

    You still only have the abstract!
There is absolutely no weight of matter to software! A 100 million digit number multiplied by zero is still zero.

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

A challenge to any who think software is anything but Abstract
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, January 06 2013 @ 12:35 AM EST
The two closest examples that come to mind are:

1. Mask ROMs in cartridges
2. Algorithms ("IP cores") in HDLs (e.g. SystemC) synthesized to hard
silicon

Obvious rebuttals, but I'd still be interested in seeing yours:

1. Not actually the software itself, but a representation that must be sensed by
another machine (at the very least, a program counter) to yield sequential
operations. Does not actually perform a process by itself. Also superseded by
mask work rights?
2. A specific-purpose machine that performs a hard-wired process, no longer
"soft".

-j

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • I'd say: Fail - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, January 06 2013 @ 12:54 PM EST
The CPU is a concrete invention.
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, January 08 2013 @ 07:50 AM EST
Yet the CPU is manufactured by the application of synthesis to a logical design
expressed in a high level language.

The same CPU can be simulated on a general purpose CPU during development to
validate its correct operation.

If the CPU is small enough, it can be downloaded into the CMOS configuration
memory of an FPGA.

It seems to me such a 'software defined CPU' is a concrete invention.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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