Rambus wants chipset royalties
Rambus Inc. VP, Avo Kanadjian, told the Electronic News that chipset makers will be targeted when the last of the memory makers agree to pay royalties on SDRAM and DDR memory chips. Rambus believes that all chipset makers, even Intel Corp., owes licensing fees for manufacturing devices that interface with SDRAM, DDR or direct Rambus DRAM chips. A principal analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group theorizes that royalties on chipsets could surpass either memory controllers or DRAM, perhaps explaining why Infineon Technologies AG has put so much into its legal struggle with Rambus. One analyst speculates that Rambus' patents, if they hold up, could be applied to ASICS, programmable logic, graphics chips or anything else that communicates with SDRAM, DDR or RDRAM.
Rambus' plans to collect royalties on chipsets could, one observer points out, provide an advantage for Intel. Even if the chip maker pays royalties, Intel's part ownership of Rambus will offset those costs and could garner it special treatment. Jim Handy of the GartnerGroup Inc., says "There's reason to believe that Intel is in favor of Rambus taking control of the marketplace, no matter what Craig Barrett said to The Financial Times."
To read the source article, click electronicnews.com.
