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Has Intel been caught sabotaging Intergraph?

The non-appearance of a crucial certification letter could be the key

Intergraph's return to the Federal Court in Alabama(Earlier story) over what it claims is Intel's failure to comply with the terms of a Preliminary Injunction could spell big trouble for Chipzilla. If Intergraph is to be believed, Intel has just carried on screwing up its business, despite what the judge says. Intergraph claims in a Motion to the court that Intel is not complying with the Preliminary Injunction Order of April 1998 that obliged Intel to provide inter alia information and samples to Intergraph. As a result, CEO Jim Meadlock says he has had to lay off 200 people and withdraw from the general-purpose server market. Specifically, Intergraph claims that Intel refused to supply Carmel chipset information, so that Intel's Brigantine motherboard had to be used instead. Competitors were given the information, Meadlock said. It was a double whammy, because Intel has now told Intergraph that it is discontinuing Brigantine sales to Intergraph. Meadlock also says that Intel has not fixed a bug in Marlinspike that was reported in March. And it also looks as though Intel will be in deep trouble for not giving Intergraph a letter certifying that Intel chips were used in its hardware. The letter was needed to meet tender conditions in Mexico, where Intergraph had been bidding for a multimillion dollar contract. Intel claimed it no longer supplied such letters, but Intergraph obtained a copy of two that Intel had supplied to IBM, and sent them to Intel. Seven months later, Intel provided a letter for Intergraph, but by this time it was of course too late to bid. Intergraph has also been excluded from product launches and from web sites mentioning manufacturers of Intel-based products. Chuck Malloy for Intel is claiming that Intel complied with the "letter and spirit" of the Order, but strangely he would not comment on the Mexico letter. It sounds as though Intel has been thoroughly caught, and will have to pay the price. In its Motion, Intergraph is asking for the appointment of a Special Master to supervise the Order until the case comes to trial in June. ®

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