Intel Claims NEC Engineer Copied Code

A Japanese engineer for NEC Corp. working with Intel Corp. hardware unscrambled a sophisticated microcode and gave the valuable program to his own company, an Intel attorney said Friday.

The allegations came on the final day of a complex copyright case being closely watched by the computer industry as attorneys for both sides gave closing arguments in federal district court.

Judge William P. Gray took the case under submission and said he will issue a ruling later this year, sometime after he returns from vacation.

It was the second time the case has come to trial since it began in 1984. In December, Judge William Ingram excused himself in mid-trial after NEC attorneys discovered that he held about $80 in Intel stock.

At issue is Intel’s allegation that NEC illegally copied Intel’s microcode, a set of instructions that literally tells a computer how to perform such functions as adding and storing data.