MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — MIPS Technologies Inc. and Lexra Inc. (Waltham, Mass.), a provider of IP cores, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that settles their existing legal disputes.

The MOU resolves an injunction order filed in April by MIPS Technologies that sought to restrain Lexra from claiming that its microprocessor core is compatible with the MIPS I instruction set, and from allegedly using MIPS Technologies' trademarks in a misleading manner.

As part of the MOU, Lexra has agreed not to represent its products as "MIPS compatible," but it may claim that its core "executes all MIPS I instructions except for MIPS' unaligned load and store instructions." The MOU further specifies that Lexra will include attributions of MIPS ownership of trademarks and disclaimers by Lexra of any affiliation between Lexra and MIPS in all Lexra materials that refer to MIPS.

Lexra has also agreed not to use product designations comprised of the letter "R" in combination with numeric digits — a nomenclature used by MIPS in its core line. Lexra has also agreed to change the name of its offering from LXR-4080 to LX-4080.

Lexra offers a 32-bit microprocessor core that uses most of the MIPS I instruction set. With the exception of the unaligned load and store instructions, which are protected by MIPS patents, the instruction set is in the public domain.

Among the charges in its initial suit, MIPS' alleged that Lexra falsely claimed its core to be MIPS compatible. MIPS also held that the name of Lexra's product, LXR-4080, too closely resembled MIPS' trademarked R-XXXX series of microprocessor cores.