Intel and VLSI have been going at each other for years over alleged patent infringement. For the most part, it had appeared that VLSI would get its way and Intel would be forced to cough up billions in damages, but the tide appears to be turning in Intel's favour.
VLSI owns many patents, though most notably for one major ongoing legal dispute between it and Intel, two—numbered 7,523,373 and 7,725,759—to do with the speed and power demands of processors. The former is titled "Minimum Memory Operating Voltage Technique," and the latter "System and method of managing clock speed in an electronic device." They're alleged to be related to the operation of Intel's modern processors.
