Rambus Faces Fundamental Threat

Rambus often acts like a court case in the guise of a company. Earlier this week, shares skyrocketed when a judge recommended that the Federal Trade Commission drop its antitrust suit. A week earlier, shares slumped when European regulators revoked one of the company's patents.

But investors might want to take a peek at the company's actual business for a change. Overshadowed by the FTC ruling was an announcement from chip giant Intel in the past week that could conceivably undermine Rambus' core business of licensing intellectual property for memory chips.

In a white paper presented Tuesday at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, Intel gave details of a new interface standard for memory. Using test chips from memory-makers Samsung and Infineon, the standard appears to rely on a technology different that that offered by Rambus. If that's the case, the new standard could further marginalize Rambus, which has already alienated most of its potential memory maker customers after years of assiduous litigating. ...