The whole Rambus story...
(Seems like Toshiba thinks that there's something to Rambus' suit against Hitachi..)
Toshiba Signs Patent License Agreement With Rambus For SDRAM & DDR SDRAM
Memory and Controllers
Mountain View, California. -- June 15, 2000 -- Toshiba Corporation and
Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq: RMBS) today signed a new patent license agreement for
SDRAM, Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM, DDR FCRAM memory and Controllers that
directly interface with these types of memory.
Toshiba has been developing, manufacturing and selling Rambus compatible
IC's since 1990. The new agreement covers patents for fundamental aspects of
high-speed memory interfaces invented by Rambus, which are currently being
implemented in SDRAM, DDR SDRAM and DDR FCRAM memory and controllers which
directly interface with these types of memory.
Under the licensing agreement, the royalty rates for DDR SDRAM and the
controllers, which directly interface with DDR SDRAM, are greater than the
RDRAM compatible rates. The agreement also includes royalties for SDRAM and
for controllers that directly interface with SDRAM, as well as a license fee
for the entire agreement.
"This agreement ensures that Toshiba has rights to these important Rambus
patents which are necessary to continue providing our customers with their
choice of memory and logic products," said Yasuo Morimoto, president and
CEO, Toshiba Corporation Semiconductor Company. "Toshiba will continue to be
a leader in providing RDRAMs and Rambus-compatible logic products."
"We have had a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Toshiba.
Rambus develops and licenses IP - our objective is to produce innovations
that will benefit the semiconductor and systems industries, and by licensing
these innovations to generate a return on investment to our shareholders,"
said Geoff Tate, Rambus' chief executive officer. "We believe our Rambus
memory interface is the best solution for the majority of the market.
Developing and marketing the Rambus memory interface has been and remains
our top priority. But we are willing to license our IP for other memory
interface solutions as well."
Rambus Inc. is an intellectual property company that designs, develops and
licenses high-bandwidth chip-connection technologies which enable
semiconductor memory devices to keep pace with faster generations of
processors and controllers. To date, these efforts have resulted in more
than 95 U.S. and foreign patents issued to Rambus. Rambus has licensed its
technology to over 30 semiconductor companies for the development,
manufacture and sale of Rambus-compatible ICs. Providers of Rambus-based
integrated circuits include the world's leading DRAM, ASIC, controller and
microprocessor manufacturers. There are more than 60 Rambus based systems
shipping today, including Dell, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM PCs and
workstations and the Sony PlayStation(r)2 video game system. More
information on Rambus Inc. and its high bandwidth technologies is available
at rambus.com
Rambus and RDRAM are registered trademarks of Rambus Inc.
** Note: Rambus Inc. will host an Investor Relations Conference Call,
Friday, June 16, 2000 at 6:00AM PDT/9:00AM ET |
