The Register schrijft in dit bericht dat Rambus haar patent claims nu ook richting meerdere processorbakkers afvuurt. Het bedrijf zit nu met AMD en Transmeta in knoop over uitgegeven patenten in 1996. Deze zouden namelijk ook betrekking hebben op DDR SDRAM, een geheugen standaard die zoals je weet binnenkort zal worden gebruikt voor de desktopmarkt. Mochten AMD en Transmeta de claims afwijzen dan zal ook deze zaak voor de rechter uitgevochten worden:
The company wants to get the microprocessor duo to acknowledge that patents, granted in 1996, cover DDR (Double-Data Rate) SDRAM, a rival technology to its own Direct RDRAM.
The unspoken threat is that Rambus will sue these companies -if they reject its claims. Rambus is already sueing a clutch of DRAM makers - Micron, Infineon and Hyundai - to stake its claims to synchronous interface patents. Micron and Hyundai are fighting back with counter-claims of their own. But out of the litigation jungle appears to be Hitachi, which last week folded its DRAM business with NEC into a new concern, Elpida.
[...] This is hardly a strategy to win friends and influence people, but then it has little choice. Unless it establishes "ownership" of DDR-SDRAM, it's own Direct RDRAM could end up as little more than an interesting footnote in the history of the computer industry.
If it succeeds in law, the company gains new royalties -from DDR-SDRAM, while increasing unit prices of the technology. This will make Direct RDRAM more attractive as a price/perfomance step upgrade (as opposed to a big leap upwards).
Thanks Thermo en XElDiablo voor de tip.