Rambus and Intel Sign Cross-License Agreement

As you all have probably seen, the tech world is no less a soap opera than the rest of the business world - especially when it comes to RAM varieties and successors to PCI. Intel loves Rambus. Intel shuns Rambus and puts out a board that supports SDRAM and a chipset that supports DDR SDRAM. Intel loves 3GIO. Rambus loves Infiniband. Just like a soap opera, the various alliances may be tedious, but you still feel compelled to tune in every day to see who's dating who. In yet another tangle in the web of strategic alliances (not to mention technology buy-outs and company consolidations) we've seen this year, Rambus and Intel just signed a "comprehensive patent cross-license agreement that supersedes the prior agreement between the companies." The new cross-license provides complete patent coverage to Intel for all patents while giving Rambus license coverage for its high-speed interface businesses. That's about all we've been told for now, aside from a quote from Craig Barrett, Intel president and CEO: "We also look forward to continued cooperation with Rambus in the further development of RDRAM-compatible chipsets and communications chips as well as the company's support of InfiniBand and future initiatives." I'd tell you to tune in next week for the conclusion to this story, but we may not find out everything that happens until the season finale.