OT Rmbs reels in another one
Now the 10th largest Dram supplier has fallen. Wonder how many warrants they got?
Oki, Rambus Sign Patent License for 2 Memory Chip Standards
By Alan Patterson
Mountain View, California, July 28 (Bloomberg) -- Rambus Inc. and Oki Electric Industry Co. signed a new patent license agreement covering two memory standards that Oki uses to make chips.
The agreement covers patents used in synchronous dynamic random access memory, or SDRAM, and double data rate, or DDR, chips which Oki has been using to make memory semiconductors and controllers.
Under the licensing agreement, the royalty rates for DDR SDRAM and the DDR controllers are greater than the Rambus DRAM- compatible rates. Rambus DRAM is a memory standard which Rambus, a chip design company in California, has developed to improve processing speeds in computers and electronic games.
``This agreement ensures that Oki has rights to these important Rambus patents, which are necessary for current and future memory and logic products,'' said Masayoshi Ino, managing director of Oki Electric.
The agreement also includes royalties for SDRAM and SDRAM controller chips, as well as a license fee for the entire agreement.
Intel Corp., the world's largest chipmaker, yesterday said it may support two computer memory standards that compete with a design from Rambus, possibly further dividing a market once reserved for Rambus alone.
Intel said that it will make a chipset for its Pentium 4 processor supporting synchronous dynamic random access memory, or SRAM, thereby ending its exclusive endorsement of the Rambus memory design.
Intel said that it may make Pentium 4 chipsets which support double data rate, or DDR, DRAM chips as well.
Hitachi Ltd. has agreed to pay Rambus licensing fees for its patented computer memory chip designs in an agreement similar to that reached between Rambus and Oki today.
Rambus sued Hitachi in January, accusing Japan's No. 1 electronics maker of violating Rambus patents. Hitachi has agreed to pay Rambus an undisclosed settlement fee and pay quarterly royalties
quote.bloomberg.com |
