tench,
thanks for the posts and tech details written in a manner that i can understand. now feast your eyes on this from bloomberg news...
unclewest
Rambus Expects Bonanza From First PC Shipments: Bloomberg Forum
New York, Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Rambus Inc., which develops super-fast memory-chip technology, expects a royalty bonanza later this year when personal computers that use chips it designed go on sale, said Chief Executive Geoff Tate.
Rambus developed technology that increases the amount of data that can be transferred by a dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chip as much as 10 times. All PCs require DRAMs to communicate with stored data.
Rambus said royalty revenue for its third fiscal quarter ended June 30 rose 11 percent to $1.8 million from $1.6 million a year earlier. Royalties represented only about 17 percent of overall revenue of $10.6 million, most of which came from companies that signed contracts for its technology.
``If we achieve our goal over the next several years of achieving 50 percent of the DRAM market, our royalty income will increase some 50 times,' Tate told the Bloomberg Forum.
By October, Tate said, customers including Compaq Computer Corp., the No. 1 PC maker, and Dell Computer Corp., the No. 1 direct seller of PCs, will ship their first models with Rambus- licensed DRAMs.
Later this month, Tate said, Intel Corp., the world's No. 1 chipmaker, will announce that Rambus DRAMs meet specifications for next-generation chips for desktop PCs and say how they will be used in laptop PCs as early as 2000.
As a result, Rambus expects revenue to increase rapidly, getting its next-generation designs into as much as 20 percent of all DRAMs shipped next year, Tate said. There could be a shortage as PC makers snap up the new chips, he said.
Earnings
The Mountain View, California-based company doesn't expect to get a financial boost until fiscal 2000 beginning Oct. 1, Tate said. The 6-cents-a-share average estimate of five analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. for fourth-quarter earnings is ``in a reasonable range,' he said.
Analysts expect Rambus to earn 30 cents a share in fiscal 1999, more than doubling to 77 cents in fiscal 2000.
Tate, 45, a computer scientist, said the world's top makers of DRAMs, including Micron Technology Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., licensed Rambus designs. Rambus doesn't manufacture chips.
Rambus DRAMs have been used in consumer-electronics products such as Sony Corp.'s PlayStation and Nintendo Corp.'s games since 1995, Tate said, providing the company's first royalty stream.
Intel has warrants to buy a million Rambus shares for $10 each ``when more than 20 percent of their memory controller chips that connect on DRAMs connect on Rambus DRAMs,' Tate said. That could happen as early as next year, the CEO said, although Intel may take its time before exercising its warrants.
Aug/16/1999 13:24 |
