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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: milo_morai who wrote (46429)	7/2/2000 12:51:22 PM
From: Estephen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93625

6/30/00 - Rambus hopes DRAM royalties tip the scale Jun. 30, 2000 (Electronic Buyers News - CMP via COMTEX) -- These are heady times for Rambus Inc. Through an artful application of the carrot and the stick, the third-party IP designer has retained Wall Street's favor while bolstering its claim to fundamental DRAM technology patents. Initially, Rambus' contention that it owns the rights to the synchronous interface found in most memory chips on the market was roundly rejected by leading DRAM manufacturers as indefensible. As part of a standard forged in an open JEDEC forum, the technology was held by many in the industry to be common property. But last month's surprise licensing agreement with Toshiba Corp.-and the subsequent and even more startling out-of-court settlement with Hitachi Ltd.-has seriously challenged that premise. Although the two vendors are not among the DRAM market's top tier, their willingness to negotiate away what previously had been thought of as standard technology has given Rambus the legal high ground in its quest to control key DRAM intellectual property. Since they aren't talking, one can only guess at the reaction to the licensing deals by leading manufacturers like Hyundai, Micron Technology, NEC, and Samsung-though it's a safe bet their legal departments will see a spike in billable hours in the weeks ahead. However, if the story unfolds anything like Rambus' Direct RDRAM licensing plan, then presumably Toshiba and Hitachi have received favorable terms that will begin to degrade for the rest of the DRAM industry depending on how long it takes them to come to the table. And assuming it's successful in pressing its claim, Rambus could realize a healthy new royalty stream, not just from Direct RDRAM sales but from the sale of single-data-rate and double-data-rate SDRAM. And therein hangs the tale. Though it has weathered delays from associated core-logic chipsets coming from Intel Corp. E-mail me with any comments at amaclell@cmp.com. ebnonline.com -0- By: Andrew MacLellan, Editor Copyright 2000 CMP Media Inc.