I think the stakes are so high, and funding so deep, that eventually cache management will reach parity, regardless of the choices made to get there. I'm not an insider to dissect algorithms academically, but if in the worst case one needs to license the competition's patent, that'll happen.
Keep in mind that the cost of non-performancen is irrelevance in the market, and that's a non-option for the likes of Qualcomm, Samsung, etc.
If it is competitor's, but much likely of a patent troll, whom are as many in this area as I said in wireless. Cache algos today are said to be designed very specifically to work around known traps, even if it meant going for suboptimal solutions.
About to go back to Shenzhen this year. Been canvassing all kinds of weird places for 14 months now as part of a job. Angola, Kenya, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan (just trying to sell a freaking water vending machine there, nothing more.)
I'm asking because I am very curious about the industry.
Keep in mind that the cost of non-performancen is irrelevance in the market, and that's a non-option for the likes of Qualcomm, Samsung, etc.