Now if it was a truely mind blowing concept that was stolen fine.
It is. But this is about getting different processors to do parts of the same job.
Actually it is one of the most complex aspects of CPU (and other microprocessor design). In fact there have been chipsets developed (VLIW) specifically to move this functionality into software, making high performance processors dirt cheap (and since compilers are already super-complicated, no loss there). It's been done before in one form or another
Sure. But probably not before 1989. this simply strikes me as a company trying to fleece a big company out of money.
Because we all know that large corporations should be allowed to simply steal other peoples inventions, without paying for it. Besides which the Cell is actually an IBM processor, so why on earth they're sueing Sony is a bit of a mystery.