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Technology Stocks : LSI Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tony Viola who wrote (17558)	3/29/1999 6:14:00 PM
From: Grand Poobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25814

The Rambus related article seems to be saying that LSI is tagging along with Rambus ultra high speed memory technology. Will LSI be tied directly to Rambus such that for all Rambus RDRAM DIMMs, or whatever, that get shipped, LSI chips or core logic go along? I don't think that's exactly what it's saying. It sounds like LSI has gotten its interface to high-speed Rambus memory modules working. The Rambus ASIC Cell (RAC) is a chunk of IP that Rambus sells to people to plunk into their chips so that they can talk to Rambus memory. It is an interface to memory similar to that required by other types of memory, although more complicated because of the high speed transfers involved. Most memory interfaces are developed by semiconductor companies in house, but Rambus has taken the unique step of licensing their technology to other companies. They sell you the block of IP and then you design the RAC into your chip. The debugging process for integrating the RAC is not trivial because of the high speed at which it operates. The fact that LSI has it working is nice but does not necessarily translate directly to the bottom line. In fact, does anyone know which LSI products might be using Rambus memory? Maybe the Playstation II chip or some of the Symbios server architectures? Regards, G.P. P.S. After rereading the article, it does sound like LSI is selling a chip that will act as a stand-alone interface to Rambus memory modules. However, this is not the Rambus business model I am familiar with. Either Rambus is branching out into new territory or the article just comes across wrong. If you look at the article posted on the Rambus thread, Message 8558040, it sounds more like what I'm talking about above.