Rambus decides to enter the semiconductor chip manufacturing game

Monday 17th August 2015 14:51 GMT Richard Wharram

Noooo

Let's not have Intel and Rambus giving each other RIMM jobs again at the expense of the consumer!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDRAM

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Monday 17th August 2015 15:10 GMT Destroy All Monsters

Manufacturing ain't in this company's DNA.

into chips with standards-based offerings

The one which RAMBUS gets the IEEE to standarize on whereupon PATENT SUBMARINES surface menacingly?

Man, I remember the article in "The Economist" about RAMBUS. Still have it probably on my HD. There were also a number of articles by El Reg's Andrew Orlowski back from 200[12], when he wrote about other things than crying artists.

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1. Monday 17th August 2015 15:45 GMT Gideon 1
  
  Re: Manufacturing ain't in this company's DNA.
  
  Yeah, their royalty rates fell after smack-down by the European Commission:
  
  http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/case_details.cfm?proc_code=1_38636
  
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Monday 17th August 2015 16:26 GMT Pascal Monett

"Somehow we got thrown into the patent troll bunch,"

Yeah, somehow.

Maybe it had something to do with the endless stream of lawsuits coupled with Intel's withdrawal of support demonstrating that RAMBUS was just a load of hot air ?

Or maybe it was just bad luck. Yeah, that's what he must be thinking.

Well, looks like we're going to see what their IP is really worth.

I'm getting the popcorn.

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Monday 17th August 2015 16:41 GMT Nolveys

Nope

I will not be touching *anything* with components from Rambus. No chance, no way, no how.

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Monday 17th August 2015 16:52 GMT asdf

Wow smart, not so much

Because going into manufacturing worked out so swimmingly for 3dfx huh? At least computer memory is not largely a commodity, low margin and volatile in price. Oh wait.

Edit: on second read this obviously more a PR stunt and they won't be doing much more than token manufacturing.

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Monday 17th August 2015 19:01 GMT Turtle

A Rich And Complex Sense Of Humor.

"'Somehow we got thrown into the patent troll bunch,' Black told the WSJ. 'This is just not the case.'"

Oh I see he's got a rich and complex sense of humor. Just like, for example, John MacAfee.

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Monday 17th August 2015 19:19 GMT John Savard

Uh

If Rambus manufactures components that are compatible with current memory standards, won't they have to enter a patent cross-licensing pool? Which would mean that in return for being able to do that, makers of the current types of DDR memory that are alleged to use patented innovative technology from RAMBUS would be licensed to do so?

In my books, a "patent troll" is not a nonpractising entity, it's an entity trying to get royalties on an invalid patent - because the U.S. Patent Office is too overwhelmed to check if patents are "obvious to those skilled in the art", and has been for several decades now.

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1. Tuesday 18th August 2015 02:31 GMT John Smith 19
  
  Re: Uh
  
  "In my books, a "patent troll" is not a nonpractising entity, it's an entity trying to get royalties on an invalid patent - because the U.S. Patent Office is too overwhelmed to check if patents are "obvious to those skilled in the art", and has been for several decades now."
  
  That is a verycharitable view of the UPTO activities.
  
  AFAIK it does no examination and will dish out a patent on nearly anything, then wait for the courts to decide.
  
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2. Wednesday 19th August 2015 06:31 GMT Turtle
  
  @John Savard Re: Uh
  
  "If Rambus manufactures components that are compatible with current memory standards, won't they have to enter a patent cross-licensing pool?"
  
  No, not if they manufacture standards-compliant devices which by definition require the use standard-essential patents, which patents must turn be licensed by the patent-holder to anyone who wants to implement the standard which requires those patents, on a FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) basis, meaning basically that anyone who wants a license to use the patent can get one, and everyone pays roughly the same very nominal rate for its use, and those royalty rates usually have cap to them, so that no one will pay a total of more than a certain amount for using the patent.
  
  A patent will only become part of a standard if the patent-holder agrees to license it on a FRAND basis.
  
  There is no requirement that the licensee agree to cross-license any IP to the holder of standards-essential patents nor is there any implicit agreement the the licensee agree to forfeit any right to sue the license-granter for using the licensee's patents etc.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing
  
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Monday 17th August 2015 21:19 GMT John Geek

wait, virtually all modern processors have the DRAM controller integrated to the processor chips... the only remaining 'chipset' functionality is 2nd tier IO (ethernet, additional SATA, and so on).

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