Tulip Computers, Intern. B.V. v. Dell Computer, CIV.A.00-981.
| Decision Date | 09 December 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV.A.00-981.,CIV.A.00-981. |
| Citation | 236 F.Supp.2d 364 |
| Parties | TULIP COMPUTERS, INTERNATIONALI B.V. Plaintiff v. DELL COMPUTER CORPORATION, Defendant |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Delaware |
Steven J. Balick Esquire and John G. Day, Esquire, Ashby & Geddes, Wilmington, DE. Of Counsel: Dirk D. Thomas, Esquire, Robert A. Auchter, Esquire, William A. Marino, Esquire, and Marc N. Henshke, Esquire, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, L.L.P., Washington, DC; for plaintiff Tulip Computers International B.V.
Frederick L. Cottrell, III, Esquire and Chad M. Shandler, Esquire, Richards, Layton & Finger, Wilmington, DE. Of
Counsel: Scott F. Partridge, Esquire, Howard L. Speight, Esquire, and Maria Wyckoff Boyce, Esquire, Baker Botts L.L.P., Houston, TX; for defendant Dell Computer Corporation.
This is a patent infringement case. On November 24, 2000, Tulip Computer International B.V. ("Tulip")1 filed its complaint (D.I.1) alleging infringement of its U.S. patent No. 5,594,621 ("the '621 patent") by specific systems in defendant Dell Computer Corporation's ("Dell")2 OptiPlex line of computers. On January 19, 2001, Dell filed its answer (D.I.6) denying Tulip's allegations and alleging that the '621 patent is invalid, unenforceable, and not infringed. On August 15, 2002, this court entered an amended scheduling order (D.I.281) pursuant to which the parties filed a joint submission of disputed claim terms on September 20, 2002 (D.I.308). Simultaneous briefing on the parties' respective claim interpretations was completed on October 25, 2002. Case dispositive pretrial summary judgment motions were filed on October 11, 20023 and briefing on those motions was completed on November 1, 2002. Pursuant to Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc.4 and local practice, oral argument was held November 7, 2002 on the parties' claim interpretations and motions for summary judgment. This opinion sets forth the court's construction of the disputed claim terms. The court's determination with regard to the parties' motions for summary judgment are presented in separate opinions.
Personal computers of the AT type (those based on the IBM PC AT), and computers compatible therewith, typically include a motherboard on which various components are located (i.e., the processor, memory chips and various integrated circuits). Early personal computers also included connectors located on the motherboard into which expansion boards could be inserted. Expansion boards permit the functionality of the computer to be expanded and include video cards, audio cards, telefax cards, modem cards, and control cards for external components such as CD-ROM players or disk drives. Expansion boards typically consist of a printed circuit board having its functional components mounted on one side. These boards have contact strips by which the expansion boards are electronically connected to the motherboard via the expansion connectors. The expansion boards also have a mounting bracket at one end of the card by which the card may be secured to the computer chassis once the board has been inserted into an expansion connector. Because the expansion boards in early personal computers were mounted on the motherboard and extended perpendicularly to the plane of the motherboard, the computer's chassis had to be tall enough to accommodate height of the expansion boards. The Low Profile Extender ("LPX") form factor5 was developed to respond to consumer demand for shorter computer chassis. The LPX form factor consists of a connector for a so-called riser card. A riser card is a printed circuit board inserted perpendicularly into the motherboard in the same manner as an expansion boards. The riser card has expansion connectors on its face into which expansion boards can be inserted. When expansion boards are inserted into the connectors on the riser card, the expansion boards extend perpendicularly from the riser card and parallel to the plane of the motherboard. Since the riser card merely functions as a docking station for expansion boards, its surface need only contain the expansion connectors for expansion boards. Therefore, the height of the riser card is less than the height of the typical expansion board whose surface area contains the functional components of those boards. Consequently, less vertical space is required by computers utilizing the LPX form factor compared to computers whose expansion boards are inserted directly into the motherboard. The result is a lower profile computer case.
Early expansion boards were compatible with an Industry Standard Architecture ("ISA") bus that carried signals among the components on the mother board and to the riser card. An improved, faster, technology was the Peripheral Component Interconnect ("PCI") bus which processes high frequency signals (33 MHz). The contact strips of ISA and PCI expansion boards differed in design and, therefore, each required a specific expansion connector. As the computer industry transitioned from ISA to PCI type boards, there was a desire to provide users with computers capable of utilizing boards of both types. To this end riser cards were designed for use in computers utilizing the LPX form factor, that included both dedicated ISA expansion connectors and dedicated PCI expansion connectors. A further advancement was the development of a combination connector ("combi-connector"). A combi-connector occupies a single expansion position and has two expansion connectors, one that can receive an ISA type board and one that can receive a PCI type board. The two expansion connectors of the combi-connector are physically close together and are aligned with a single point of attachment for securing an expansion board's mounting bracket to the computer chassis. A user can insert either an ISA board or a PCI board into the combi-connector, but not both types of boards simultaneously. The '621 patent claims a riser card including expansion positions having dedicated ISA and PCI connector(s) and a combination connector.
Prior to Tulip's invention, riser cards were inserted into a connector centrally located on the motherboard. A riser card located in the middle of the motherboard created a physical barrier to the circulation of air from the computer's internal cooling fan. Because of this barrier, the area of the motherboard located on the side of the riser card farthest away from the computer's fan was not cooled as effectively as the area of the motherboard on the same side of the riser card as the fan. Tulip's advancement in the art was to move the riser card to the side of the motherboard. The repositioning of the riser card purportedly permits unimpeded airflow across the computer's internal components thereby improving the cooling efficiency of the computer's fan. Tulip also contends that additional advantages are achieved when the riser card is moved from a central to a side location on the motherboard.
In prior art teaching a centrally located riser card having connectors for both ISA and PCI type expansion boards, the dedicated ISA connectors are located in the lowest expansion connectors nearest to the motherboard and the side of the ISA expansion boards on which its components are located faces away from the motherboard. The dedicated PCI connectors are located at the highest expansion connectors farthest from the motherboard and the side of the PCI expansion boards on which its components are located faces toward the motherboard. The invention described by the '621 patent reverses the respective connector locations and component orientation. The result is an invention teaching a riser card on which the dedicated PCI connectors are located in the lowest expansion connectors and oriented such that the side of the PCI expansion boards on which its components are located face away from the motherboard. This has the purported advantage of shorter linking tracks to the PCI expansion boards. Shorter linking tracks are contended to be particularly desirable for the 33 MHZ signals processed by PCI expansion boards. Additionally, having the components on the PCI expansion boards facing away from the motherboard allegedly provides more efficient cooling for those components.
Tulip states that a connector for a riser card having both ISA and PCI connectors requires a large number of terminals for electronic signals between the motherboard and expansion boards. Tulip contends when such a riser card connector is centrally located, the presence of the terminals associated with the riser card connector make it difficult to provide linking tacks which connect motherboard components on one side of the riser card connector to components on the motherboard on the other side of the riser card connector. Tulip maintains that placing the riser card connector on the side of the motherboard avoids this problem. Finally, Tulip maintains that moving the riser card connector to the side of the motherboard creates additional space for the placement of larger components on the motherboard itself and that those components are also more efficiently cooled by the computer's fan.
A. The Fatented Invention
The '621 patent, entitled "Motherboard for a Computer of the AT Type, and a Computer of the AT Type Comprising Such Motherboard," describes and claims a personal computer having a novel motherboard form factor. The invention concerns the placement of a riser card connector at a specific location on the motherboard and the arrangement of expansion board connectors on the riser card to achieve the purported benefits described above.
Claims 1 and 2 of the '621 patent are at issue. Claim 1 reads as follows (with the disputed claim terms in bold):
1. An assembly for use in a personal computer, said assembly comprising: a motherboard;
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