SCIENCE

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Intergraph Corporation (Nasdaq:INGR) today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, the Eastern District of Texas, charging Intel Corporation with patent infringement. Specifically, Intergraph claims that Intel has infringed on two patents that define key aspects of parallel instruction computing (PIC). The patented technology was developed by Intergraph in 1992 when the company's Advanced Processor Division designed Intergraph's next generation C5 Clipper microprocessor. In the complaint, Intergraph says that its patented PIC technology is an essential component in Intel's IA-64 EPIC(TM) (explicitly parallel instruction computing) architecture, which is at the heart of Intel's new Itanium(TM) chip. The patents, which Intergraph filed for in 1993, cover (1) the techniques used to convey compiler-recognized parallelism to the hardware and (2) the novel approach to routing instructions to any of the processing units. The C5 Clipper microprocessor was originally intended for Intergraph's next generation of workstations. However, in 1993, Intel and Intergraph agreed to work together to introduce an Intel/Windows NT workstation to the market, and Intergraph ceased further development on the C5 Clipper. In 1994, Intergraph introduced the industry's first Pentium-based workstations, and in 1995, the industry's first Pentium Pro-based workstations. In announcing this separate lawsuit against Intel, Intergraph Chairman and CEO Jim Taylor said: "We have filed this action separately against Intel's IA-64 products because these claims are unrelated to our Clipper patent claims in the Alabama court. Intel's Itanium-based products, which are just now becoming commercially available in the market, infringe upon Intergraph's patented PIC technology, developed almost a decade before Intel introduced the Itanium. The parallel instruction computing technology at issue in this lawsuit is another example of the leadership role Intergraph has played in computer design. I invite you to look at Intergraph's history of technological advances at www.intergraph.com/ingrhistory.htm. I believe it will point out the significance of the Clipper patents, which are being violated by the Pentium processors, as well as the PIC patents, which are now beginning to be violated by the Itanium processor." Suit filed today is Intergraph's second patent infringement suit against Intel In November 1997, Intergraph sued Intel for infringing on its Clipper patents, which define the architecture of a microprocessor's cache memory management. Intergraph claimed that its patented Clipper technology is a crucial feature of the Pentium family of processors and systems. That lawsuit will be heard in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama, but the date for the jury trial has not yet been set. In the 1997 suit, Intergraph also contends that Intel sought to obtain rights to the Clipper patents through coercive tactics, including interference with Intergraph's business relationships, fraud, and breach of contract. The lawsuit filed today in Texas is unrelated to the patents, products or facts pending before the Alabama Court. For more information on today's filing or on the Alabama lawsuit, visit www.intergraph.com/intel