Intergraph Sues Intel
Intergraph and Intel's ongoing dispute over patent rights culminated in a lawsuit last November when Intergraph charged Intel with anticompetitive behavior. Intergraph claims that Intel is trying to coerce Intergraph into relinquishing patent rights to its early microprocessor technology, which
was Intergraph's attempt to bring mainframe-class computing to compact, low-cost integrated circuit technology. Intergraph further alleges that when Intergraph resisted this pressure, Intel used its market dominance to punish the company by withholding vital technical information necessary for Intergraph's continued workstation development efforts. The complaint states that Intel "has used, and is using, its dominant market power in the computer industry to pressure Intergraph to give up its valuable property rights, or to crush Intergraph in retaliation for refusing to do so."
The patents in question relate to Intergraph's Clipper microprocessor, which was the legacy hardware in Intergraph's RISC/UNIX workstations. These workstations dominated the workstation market, and Intergraph still supports its legacy hardware that uses the Clipper microprocessor. Based on Intel's assurances, Intergraph decided that the Intel Pentium family of microprocessors, combined with Windows NT, could provide workstation-class performance and handle high-end creative and technical applications.
In 1993, Intergraph began pioneering affordable, high-performance workstations based on the open architecture of the Intel/NT platform. The same year, Wade Patterson, president of Intergraph Computer Systems, proposed that Intergraph work with Intel to introduce the Intel/Windows platform as an alternative to RISC/UNIX systems.
The companies enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship: Intergraph developed award-winning workstations, and Intel expanded its microprocessor sales beyond PCs and into new workstation markets. Intergraph was the first vendor to use dual-processor technology for Pentium-based workstations. The boost to system performance from dual-processor capability caused wider acceptance of the Pentium as a workstation solution.
In the lawsuit, Intergraph is asking for monetary damages and an injunction to let Intergraph continue developing its Pentium-based workstations. Intergraph CEO Jim Meadlock said that Intergraph and Intel representatives have discussed the issues in the lawsuit for more than a year. "We now need to take action that is in the best interest of our shareholders, customers, business partners, and employees," he said.
Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said that Intergraph and Intel never asserted the patent rights in question in the beginning of the Intergraph-Intel relationship. He explained that Intergraph was asserting these rights to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), who then queried Intel. The two companies began talks to clarify the rights in question, and Intel made offers for the patents that Mulloy described as fair. According to Mulloy, Intel believes that Intergraph has no rights to these patents, but company officials entered talks to gain clarity about a very real dispute.
Intel filed a separate suit in US District Court, San Jose, last November seeking a declaratory judgment to declare the patents invalid; the court can't find Intel guilty of infringing on patents that are not valid. "We would prefer not to be in litigation," Mulloy said. Of the Intergraph claims, he said, "We don't think that suit has any merit."
Intergraph insists that Intel must guarantee continued supplies of the Pentium II processor before Intergraph will resolve the legal dispute. "That would have to be part of the settlement," said Intergraph's CEO, Jim Meadlock. "We have to have a clear agreement that Intel can't play games." Pentium II chips are key to Intergraph's efforts to expand its NT Workstation market share in 1998.
Intel had intended to sue Intergraph first, but Intergraph beat Intel to the punch. At press time, Intergraph planned to file a motion asking the judge to toss out Intel's request for declaratory judgment, and neither company was seeking any type of out-of-court settlement. Sources close to Intel say the company prefers to settle without litigation.
—Sarah Hogan
Are You a Target for Malicious Intruders?
What are the odds that a malicious intruder will attack your Windows NT system in an Internet-related setting? NetSolve, an Austin-based network integrator, released results of a study conducted between May and September 1997 of its customer sites, which vary in size from small firms to large enterprises. The study results show how often systems come under attack.
NetSolve gathered information on more than half a million actual alarms (security systems detecting unwanted access attempts). The results show that half the attacks came from Internet Service Provider (ISP) addresseswhich makes them harder to trace. Almost all the attacks targeted electronic commerce sites, and 72 percent of all attacks originated outside the US.
The most prevalent intrusions were against Web server script mechanisms such as Common Gateway Interface (CGI). The second most prevalent were simple TCP port scans looking for available services (step one in breaking into a network).
NetSolve said monitoring during July through September showed an increase in attacks against software using the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) and against the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), probably as a result of the recent release of the Smurf program used to launch such attacks. NetSolve said that, overall, about 80 percent of the monitored companies had experienced at least one major network attack per month, and every customer had heavy probing by intruders looking for a system's vulnerability.
—Mark Joseph Edwards
Waiting on a Pentium II Clone
In last month's NT News Network, I hinted at National Semiconductor's acquisition of Cyrix—shareholders approved the merger on November 17 of last year. Through this acquisition, Cyrix can access the Pentium II architecture and might be in a position to produce its own variation of the Pentium II chip by late 1998. The rights to the Pentium II designs come from a relatively old cross-license agreement between National Semiconductor and Intel. Effectively, this agreement means Intel will probably face some stiff competition from Cyrix in the high-end desktop arena.
Sources familiar with this development say Cyrix's rights to the Pentium II technology depend on whether Cyrix's patents become part of National Semiconductor's portfolio. Conversely, Intel might be able to access Cyrix's intellectual property. Attorneys for Cyrix and National Semiconductor say that Cyrix will be able to use the Pentium II technology in any scenario.
—Mark Joseph Edwards
SoftWhere?
Wondering when the latest version of your favorite Microsoft product will hit the streets? You don't have to guess any more. Thanks to inside sources, Windows NT Magazine will try to keep you up to date on release dates. Just be warned that many of these dates are tentative and based on Microsoft's timetable.
- NT Server 5.0: Next beta in first half of 1998; release in second half of 1998
- NT Workstation 5.0: Next beta in first half of 1998; release in second half of 1998
- Windows 98: Release in second quarter of 1998
- Windows CE 2.0: Released September 29, 1997
- SQL Server 7.0 (Sphinx): Beta 2 released December 1997
- SQL Server Enterprise Edition: Early 1998
- Exchange Server 5.5: December 1997
- Exchange Server 6.0: Release shortly after NT 5.0
- Proxy Server 2.0: Released October 8, 1997
- Internet Information Server 4.0: Released December 2, 1997
SQL Server Service Pack
Microsoft has released Service Pack (SP) 4 for SQL Server 6.5. You can download SP 4 from the following sources: http://support.microsoft.com/support/downloads/default.asp; ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/sql/public/fixes/usa; ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles.
—Brian Moran
Cloning NT Made Easier
Rolling out large numbers of workstations (i.e., cloning Windows NT installations) is a monumental chore. The basic problem is the Security Identifier (SID) that NT uses to uniquely identify systems on the network. Usually, the NT installation creates the SID; therefore, cloning NT systems by copying hard disks results in duplicate SIDs and, thus, machines that won't talk on the network correctly. Network administrators need a new utility that simplifies network build-outs.
Several companies have introduced tools to change SIDs on cloned NT installations, but these tools are typically components of high-end packages and not necessarily standalone utilities. Windows NT Magazine's NT Internals columnist Mark Russinovich has created and released NTSID, a new SID-changing utility. The tool and source code are available for free to anyone. You can download it from the NT Internals Web site, http://www.ntinternals.com/ntsid.htm.
—Mark Joseph Edwards
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