Intel's patented a variation on the Karatsuba algorithm. It hasn't simply patented 'multiplying two numbers' as stated!

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karatsuba_algorithm

That said, the (original) algorithm is well-known and even novel algorithms shouldn't be patentable.

"even novel algorithms shouldn't be patentable"

Even though I have a couple of patents to my name I am generally against software patents, sometimes I think that for genuinely novel algorithms there should be an exception (e.g. RSA encryption). However, as there is clearly no way of objectively defining what a "novel" algorithm is (i.e. there is no algorithm for it) we can't really have this exception.

So yes, I would agree that algorithms should not be patentable.

Even if RSA really is sufficiently novel (note that it had already been discovered by a secret service four years before publication), is that really worth a 20-year monopoly?

Still an algo for multiplying two numbers. Also invented by someone else (hence the name) in the 60s.

Can't actually see the patent since the patent site's down.