Rambus Needs Intel on Its Side

Rambus has alleged that SDRAM and DDR were both derived from its RDRAM technology, which the company claims was kept out of the market by the illegal collusion of the memory chipmakers.

Several major memory makers did agree to license Rambus' technology, including Samsung, Elpida and Toshiba. But Infineon, Micron and Hynix decided to challenge Rambus' patents.

Last month, Rambus settled with Infineon -- its most contentious case -- making it a licensee. But Rambus still has cases against Micron and Hynix, alleging patent infringement, as well as an upcoming collusion case against memory chipmakers.

Separately, the Justice Department is conducting a grand jury price-fixing investigation into memory-chip manufacturers that covers the period from 1999 to 2002 -- the same period during which RDRAM and DDR faced off. In the past eight months, both Hynix and Infineon have pleaded guilty to illegally fixing prices; Samsung and Micron are also targeted in the probe.

Rambus says that the guilty pleas and evidence from the DOJ investigation, as well as its own investigation, validate that its DRAM technology was unfairly kept out of the market. With that as a backdrop, the company sees Intel as now having a compelling reason to justify a switch to using Rambus' XDR interface.

This would be a significant shift. Intel has used DDR since 1999, and with Intel putting its processors into four of every five computers made, its needs can effect massive changes among suppliers.

Intel's public product roadmap doesn't extend past 2006, which means it hasn't yet publicly committed to the next-generation DDR3. An Intel spokeswoman declined to comment on Intel's memory plans beyond its support of DDR2 for the current year.

Coincidentally, the end of 2006 also marks the expiration of the current cross-licensing deal between Rambus and Intel. Rambus will likely kick renegotiations into high gear in the coming quarters. As Hughes put it, "The journey is at a start."