It's a patent for a specific set of steps to execute vector code in loops in parallel, which means the HN title is needlessly linkbaity. The truth is ridiculous enough.
Your average HN reader would probably 'invent' the same technique if CPU design was their profession and they were tasked with the continuous march of CPU performance.
There wasn't anything in there that didn't seem straight forward enough to me after casually reading Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach five years ago, and I make flash games for a living.
At least in the case of patents on CPUs, though, your average company is well financed enough to fight a lawsuit around this patent, which was the particularly annoying thing about Lodsys.
Your average HN reader would probably 'invent' the same technique if CPU design was their profession and they were tasked with the continuous march of CPU performance.
There wasn't anything in there that didn't seem straight forward enough to me after casually reading Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach five years ago, and I make flash games for a living.
At least in the case of patents on CPUs, though, your average company is well financed enough to fight a lawsuit around this patent, which was the particularly annoying thing about Lodsys.