More evidence that what I said is true....Rambus does own DDR and sdram... After the december trial, look out 200!
Wednesday November 1, 7:04 am Eastern Time
Press Release
Samsung Signs Patent License Agreement With Rambus For SDRAM & DDR SDRAM Memory and Controllers
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 2000--Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd and Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS - news) today signed a patent license agreement for SDRAM, Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM memory and controllers that directly interface with these types of memory.
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 controllers that 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.
Dataquest ranks Samsung as the world's leading DRAM supplier with revenues of $4,774M and 20.7% market share and the world's fourth largest semiconductor supplier with revenues totaling $7,125M in 1999.
``We have had a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Samsung, the technology and market share leader in the DRAM industry. Samsung has been developing, manufacturing and selling Rambus compatible IC's since 1994,'' said Geoff Tate, Rambus' chief executive officer. ``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. We believe our RDRAM memory interface is the best solution for the majority of the market. Developing and marketing the RDRAM memory interface has been and remains our top priority. But we are willing to license our IP for other memory interface solutions as well.''
Five companies, Samsung, NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi and Oki, have so far signed SDRAM and DDR SDRAM license agreements with Rambus. According to Dataquest, their cumulative DRAM market share in 1999 was greater than 40% and four of these companies are listed among the top 10 semiconductor suppliers in the world.
The Agreement, which includes an up-front license fee and quarterly royalty payments to Rambus, is effective for shipments of licensed products by Samsung beginning July 1, 2000. The first royalties from the Agreement will be recognized by Rambus in the current (December) quarter. Rambus plans to utilize a portion of the incremental revenues for increased promotional activities during the next several quarters.
Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS - news) 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 100 U.S. and foreign patents issued to Rambus. Rambus has licensed its technology to approximately 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. |
