Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

The Chicken is Really a Fox?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • The Chicken is Really a Fox?

    This from Semiconductor Business News:

    MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Hitachi Ltd.'s settlement of a patent dispute with Rambus Inc. requires the Japanese chip maker to pay royalties on fast synchronous DRAMs and double data rate (DDR) memories only through the end of this year. After Dec. 31, the marketing of those devices will be shifted to a new joint venture with NEC Corp., called NEC Hitachi Memories Inc.

    Last week's licensing agreement between Hitachi and Rambus will not cover memories sold by the joint venture, said Avo Kanadjian, vice president of worldwide marketing at Rambus in Mountain View. "It covers the transition period, before the NEC and Hitachi joint DRAM venture becomes effective," he added.

    Hitachi and Rambus made headlines last week when they announced a new licensing agreement to cover SDRAMs, DDR DRAMs and controllers interfacing to those memories. In settling patent lawsuits in the U.S. and Germany, Hitachi agreed to license Rambus patents for high-speed interfaces on SDRAMs, DDR memories and controllers (see June 22 story).

    Rambus maintains that its interface patents apply to high-speed SDRAMs and DDR memories, in addition to its own Rambus DRAM architecture. The company expects to strike expanded licensing pacts for more royalties from other DRAM makers (see June 23 story).

    Semiconductor analyst Bob Merritt of Semico Research Inc. raised questions about Hitachi's payment of SDRAM royalties after the start of its joint venture with NEC. The Redwood City, Calif.-based analyst was correct, but Rambus' Kanadjian said Hitachi will continue to pay royalties for controller logic interfaces on its Super H-series of microprocessors because these MPUs connect directly to the high-speed memories. Hitachi SDRAMs and DDR memories, however, will fall outside of new licensing pact once the NEC joint venture begins to sell those parts in 2001, he confirmed.

    Paul
    paulcs@flashcom.net

  • #2
    hehehehe

    That's was interesting way sneaking around the patent infringement lawsuit. Cut a deal with SCUMBUTTS, then form a new company so they can't touch you. I like it!

    I just hope the venture doesn't get sued. Hopefully they'll reverse engineer their RAM so they can't be sued this time around.

    Jammrock

    ------------------
    Athlon 650, Biostar board, 128 MB PC133 (Crucial), G400 32 MB DH, SB Live! w/ Digital I/O, 10/100 NIC, lots of case fans, etc...
    “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
    –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

    Comment


    • #3
      Both Hitachi and Toshiba appear to have somewhat hidden agendas. Toshiba has a sweet deal to supply Rambus for the Playstation 2. Making nice with Rambus Inc. may have been prudent. Hitachi Semiconductor is in financial trouble, and they probably don't need the financial drain of a court case when they are attempting to merge with NEC.

      Micron has been extremely profitable, and their SDRAM business has done quite well. I've read they have also had a good deal of success in the legal arena. Their "come and get me" stance appears to be a real public relations coup as well. I find myself cheering them on (and rewarding them with yet another SDRAM purchase from Crucial).

      Rambus hasn't made a lot of friends outside of Wall Street recently. Apparently, the pace of development of new memory technologies is being accelerated. Inventors are being encouraged to apply for patents early. Engineers appear to be appalled. Even Intel has made some faint distancing noises lately.

      It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

      Paul
      paulcs@flashcom.net

      Comment


      • #4
        Way cool...glad to see that it wasn't a matter of caving after all.

        As far a Micron is concerned...after having worked there as a equipment rep for 5 years while they played 'torure the vendor', kept hoping that one morning I would wake up and see a bright mushroom cloud over the east side of Boise. **sigh**, never happened.

        But I guess we need 'em. I suppose...

        Comment

        Working...
        X