Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: blrmkr who wrote (5174)	6/27/1998 1:38:00 PM
From: Mark Rosneck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Lance, To recap, whatever royalty there is for the RAC, it would be paid by the chip set vendor -- Intel or VIA (if VIA supports Rambus). I'm not aware of any data regarding the royalty that Intel pays. It could actually be the case where Rambus gives away the RAC to Intel. Kind of like giving away the razor to sell the blades but I don't know one way or the other. Personally, I'd find this surprising. My real point in bringing up VIA is that this is the most likely way that computers using AMD processors will use Rambus RDRAMS. As to whether VIA supports Rambus at some point, as I said there are no data but their business model would certainly seem to make that likely. Their support won't happen in a vacuum either -- it will be driven by their relationship with AMD and by demands from motherboard vendors which will be driven by demands for better, cheaper, faster PCs. Of course, VIA chip sets are also used on motherboards with Intel processors so not supporting Rambus would seem to present an issue for them -- unless they have an alternative. By the way, one area no one mentions much is the use of Rambus for graphics devices. Here is a case where the RAC is integrated into a processor (albeit a graphics processor). I know of two examples -- the Cirrus Laguna and Chromatic MPACT. Regards, Mark

To: blrmkr who wrote (5174)	6/29/1998 7:30:00 AM
From: Shibumi	Respond to of 93625

>>That may be so, but these are just motherboards that AMD says their processor will work with. They are not manufactured by AMD, and neither is the chipset (as you pointed out). So I still see no way for Rambus to glean 4% from AMD or any other processor vendor,<< You're absolutely right, there is no *direct* transfer of cash from AMD to Rambus (note: this would not be the case for a vertically integrated microprocessor/chip set manufacturer). However, when Compaq or whoever is negotiating with AMD (or other alternative microprocessor vendors) to use their device, they negotiate based on what the anticipated savings of using the microprocessor will be in a PC -- not just on what the microprocessor by itself costs. Thus, there are only two places that you can take this royalty out -- either on the clone microprocessor side or the chipset side. I have no idea what Via's revenue/margin stream looks like -- but I'd be incredibly surprised if Via took the full hit on the royalty payment without increasing their chip set price -- and thus causing AMD to become slightly less cost effective unless the correspondingly lowered their microprocessor price. >>This really implies nothing about Via's plans for or against using Rambus technology in their chipsets. As I have said in a previous post, this information would be very useful. If they in fact do endorse RMBS, it would be more fuel for the fire. If they don't, well, competition is good!<< Several hundred posts ago, someone posted a reference to some AMD vice president complaining about Intel's "monopoly" and noting that if Intel endorsed Rambus, then Rambus by default would be the industry standard. This is actually the first time I thought of AMD getting hurt by Intel's selection of Rambus. Also, several hundred posts ago, someone posted information concerning the deal that Intel had struck with Rambus. I believe that this deal means that Intel gets the Rambus processor-side technology for free. Certainly I've never seen a revenue projection from any analyst with revenue coming in from Intel licensing fees.