NEC-Hitachi may make peace with Rambus
Sep. 15, 2000 (Electronic Engineering Times - CMP via COMTEX) -- TOKYO - Early
indications suggest that the new DRAM joint venture of Hitachi Ltd. and NEC
Corp. prefers to make peace, not war, with Rambus Inc. The company, which will
open its doors for business Jan. 1, will independently decide how to come to
terms with Rambus' DRAM interface licensing demands, which have unleashed a
firestorm of lawsuits in recent months.
NEC's decision to license Rambus' broad DRAM interface portfolio, announced last
week, may be a prelude to the decision of the still-unnamed NEC-Hitachi
joint-venture DRAM company. Under the agreement, NEC has licensed Rambus' SDRAM,
double-data-rate and Rambus DRAM interfaces for both logic and memory devices.
However, except for next-generation 1,066-MHz Direct RDRAM Rambus technology,
the licensing agreement will not be transferred to the spin-off. That means the
licensing decision will be left to the management team of the new company.
Polar opposites
NEC and Hitachi, which will each own half of the new company, have stood on
opposite ends of the pole over Rambus. NEC's dealings with Rambus date to the
early '90s, when it made the first Rambus-based DRAMs for the Nintendo 64 game
console. It was also one of the first suppliers to push 288-Mbit RDRAMs for
high-end systems. NEC's most recent decision to license Rambus' patents for
SDRAM and DDR interfaces shows the company isn't averse to the licensing model
that has generated resistance from many other DRAM makers. Toshiba Corp. and Oki
Electric Industry Co. Ltd. have also struck similar licensing agreements with
Rambus in recent months.
Hitachi and Rambus, however, have often been at odds. Hitachi initially declined
to pony up royalties for Rambus' SDRAM and DDR interfaces, which prompted Rambus
earlier this year to sue Hitachi for patent infringement, and later seek to bar
the import of Hitachi-made DRAMs and SDRAM controllers to the United States by
filing a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). Hitachi
eventually capitulated and agreed to license and pay royalties to Rambus for
SDRAM, RDRAM and DDR interfaces, until the joint-venture company takes control
of Hitachi's DRAM operations.
Despite the mixed opinions among Hitachi and NEC management over Rambus, early
signs indicate that the joint-venture DRAM company will take a conciliatory
position with Rambus. The joint-venture, which will be headed by Kenji Tokuyama,
NEC's former memory division boss, is trying to cast itself as an independent
entity eager to get off the ground without a hitch as it aims to nab a 20
percent share of the DRAM market.
Asked about the new company's stance on Rambus' royalty and licensing campaign,
an NEC spokesman said, "My understanding is that they will probably sign
something by the end of the year." The new company "doesn't want a legal
confrontation," he added. "It just wants to get the business established and up
and running as smoothly as possible."
Counting on NEC, Hitachi
The parent companies may also wish to avoid a repeat of Hitachi's bout with
Rambus. Even though the new DRAM company will be an independent operation on
paper, it has no fabrication facilities of its own and will rely on NEC and
Hitachi
for manufacturing capabilities. Any action by Rambus that would try to stop the
import of SDRAM or DDR SDRAM into the United States in the absence of an
agreement could pose a threat to the parent companies' manufacturing operations.
Rambus pursued that route against Hitachi and one of its biggest customers, Sega
Enterprises, which uses Hitachi's SDRAM controllers in its Dreamcast game
console, earlier this year when it appealed to the ITC. Rambus recently lodged a
similar complaint with the ITC against Hyundai.
If the joint-venture DRAM company decides to pay the Rambus royalty, it will
steer clear of the legal battles that now pit Rambus against DRAM makers Micron,
Hyundai and Infineon. After resisting Rambus' attempts to collect royalties on
SDRAM and double-data-rate SDRAMs, these chip makers separately filed lawsuits
that accuse Rambus of antitrust violations and question the validity of its
patent portfolio. Rambus has also been on the warpath, filing lawsuits accusing
these DRAM makers of patent violation.
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