<<The one question which our technical board members should address is the significance
of the auctioning off of 45 of the now defunct Exponential Technology's Inc's patents.
The WSJ said these patents could develop next generation microprocessors chips that
may match features found in Intel's chips. Could this have any signifciant effect upon
Rambus?>>
From what I understand, the Exponential patents primarily cover a hybrid RISC/CISC architecture. They are not related to semiconductor processing. A hybrid architecture has been mentioned as one of the keys to pushing the speed limit on Intel (or compatible) chips. Most of the instructions executed by a CPU are suitable for RISC processing, and only a few require CISC. It is technically easier to make very fast RISC processors than it is to make fast CISC processors. Exponetial has taken advantage of these facts by developing hybrid architectures in which most instructions are executed by a RISC core and the rest are executed by a CISC core. This requires lots of tricks in the instruction pipeline, decode, branch predict, etc. However, once those tricks are designed-in, a hybrid architecture promises a blazing fast CPU at a reasonable price. I think that some of this technology may have been used in the PowerPC.
Some of the Exponential technology is related to memory interfaces, so maybe RMBS is interested only in the memory patents.
So what does all this mean for Rambus?
If Intel buys the Exponential patents, it's business as usual for Rambus.
If another company buys the patents, it probably will have no effect on RMBS. If a company purchases the patents and decides to build CPUs that are object code compatible with Intel CPUs, they'll probably need a lot more than just the Exponential patents. Even so, would they avoid the Rambus technology? They'll still need a fast memory interface, particularly with the typically high RISC clock rates. It probably would make sense to use the Rambus interface because of all the support chips that will eventually be available -- unless the Rambus royalty is too much to pay.
Worst case, if someone builds an Intel-compatible CPU without a Rambus interface, will that be very much different from the current situation with AMD/Cyrix? Intel will still sell lots of CPUs.
Just my opinion. Comments are welcome. |
