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

To: Bilow who wrote (53148)	9/12/2000 11:33:42 PM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 93625

NEC Reaches Agreement With Rambus on Memory Designs (Update1) By Iain Wilson Tokyo, Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- NEC Corp., Japan's largest chipmaker, said it has signed new licensing agreements to use Rambus Inc. computer-memory designs in a broad range of products, heading off a legal dispute that's engulfed other chipmakers who've refused to pay the U.S. company for its technology. The agreement means NEC will pay royalties to use Rambus's designs in two of its existing memory products. NEC will also work with Rambus to develop a newer form of memory called Direct RDRAM as part of a widening alliance and extension of licensing agreements between the two companies, NEC said in a statement distributed by Business Wire. NEC will be able to proceed with plans to produce faster chips for high-capacity workstations without fear of the same legal disputes facing chipmakers such as Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. and Micron Technology Inc. For Rambus, the accord means most of Japan's major memory-chip makers now pay royalties to use its designs. ``Japanese chipmakers have decided to take the opposite approach to the one chosen by foreign chipmakers,'' said Yoshiharu Izumi, an analyst with UBS Warburg LLC. ``Given the recent legal entanglements, licensing is a choice with low risk.'' NEC, the world's fourth-largest maker of memory chips, said in July it will boost production of 288-megabit memory chips using Rambus's designs. By switching its focus to Rambus chips with larger capacity, NEC may be betting lower capacity chips won't generate enough demand among the current generation of personal computers and processors. NEC shares fell as much as 45 yen, or 1.6 percent, to 2,750 yen before closing morning trade up 0.4 percent to 2,805 yen. Memory Design Rambus says its computer-memory technology helps speed personal computers and other devices by taking full advantage of faster processors from chipmakers such as Intel Corp. NEC's agreement to license more of Rambus's designs follows a similar move in June by Toshiba Corp., Japan's second-biggest chipmaker. NEC's agreement comes as some chip manufacturers have balked at making Rambus-based products, saying they're difficult and expensive to make. Other memory makers have been pushing alternative products to keep from having to pay royalties. Mountain View, California-based Rambus said yesterday it is suing Hyundai Electronics and Micron Technology in Germany and France for allegedly violating memory-chip patents. Hyundai, the world's second-largest computer chipmaker, and Micron sued Rambus in August in federal court in San Jose, California, alleging some of the semiconductor-design company's patents are illegal. Rambus said in its statement it sued Hyundai and Micron after negotiations to resolve the companies' patent disputes ended and Hyundai went to court. NEC said last month it had been in talks with Rambus for the past few weeks on whether NEC is infringing Rambus patents and was seeking clarification of the matter. Hitachi Ltd. said in June it had agreed to pay Rambus licensing fees for its patented computer memory chip designs, ending a legal dispute and boosting Rambus shares.