Irvine-based Broadcom, Alacritech, and Microsoft said yesterday that the companies have entered into agreements to settle a long standing dispute between Alacritech and Microsoft on TCP/IP technology used in Microsoft Windows. The agreement settles all disputes between the companies, and allows Microsoft and Broadcom access to Alacritech's patent portfolio. The companies report that the settlement includes fees paid to Alacritech. Alacritech's TCP/IP offload technology is used in TOE, iSCSI, and RDMA engines for accelerating network throughput. The Dynamic TCP offload features moves processing of TCP frames from software into the hardware, and is an expected feature in Microsoft's upcoming Longhorn operating system.