From techweb.com
Two obscure clauses in Intel's 1997 licensing pact with
Rambus let the Mountain View, Calif., memory design
company terminate its agreement with Intel if it
introduces chip sets with DDR capabilities supporting
memories other than the Direct Rambus DRAM from
2000 to 2002.
Rambus can void the license if "Intel communicates to
any of the then current top 10 DRAM manufacturers
that Intel has plans to support, as the primary DRAM
for PC main memory applications for the years 2000,
2001, and 2002, any new interface other than the
(Direct) Rambus Interface," according to a clause in the
1997 agreement.
The license can also be canceled if "Intel does not
represent [to Rambus] that the (Direct) Rambus
DRAM will be the primary DRAM for PC main
memory applications for the years 2000, 2001, and
2002," the pact said. An Intel DDR chip set would fall
under the "new interface" ban that targets any "DRAM
interface which provides greater than 1
Gigabyte/second bandwidth."
There is a now unlikely DDR escape hatch for Intel in
the 1997 agreement -- if at any time before 2003 "the
cost of the (Direct) Rambus DRAM is within 5 percent
of the cost of 100-MHz 4-megabit-by-16 SDRAM
manufactured on the identical process." With
production costs of Direct RDRAM chips now twice as
much as costs for SDRAMs, the escape clause allowing
Intel DDR chip sets is far from becoming effective.
The clauses -- 9.2(b)(iii and iv) -- are contained in
Rambus' initial stock registration statement S-1
Amendment 4 filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on April 29, 1997.
Seems like a rather precise citation for a "rumour", but with all the official BS police around here, dedicated to keeping the BS in RMBS, who can say? Anyway, it doesn't seem to bar Intel from producing a DDR chipset, it just voids the agreement if Intel does. To my jaundiced eye, this would make producing a DDR chipset a winning proposition for Intel, but there's no indication that's going to happen any time soon.
Cheers, Dan. |
