Rambus has announced that its customers have shipped more than 500 million RDRAM memory devices. Such memory modules, which have been shipping since 1997, are often found in such devices as game consoles, high definition televisions and Internet routers.

This might sound healthy, but it is all a far cry from the impressive market share Rambus expected to have several years ago. At launch, the memory was expected to be the de-facto replacement for SDRAM memory for PCs, and the company believed in 2000 to be able to climb to a 90 percent market share. This was later reduced to 22 percent in 2001, and these days the market share is in low, single digits.