Rambus gets $75 Million from AMD

User Comments: 9

1. January 3, 2006 11:41 AM
   Rhianntp said:
   I give amd credit for always looking to find new ways to compete. Back when althlon first came out they borrowed some of the board design from those Alpha high end systems. remember?
   Reply
2. January 3, 2006 12:35 PM
   MonkeyMan said:
   This is a great step for AMD, because by aquiring the use of patented software from Rambus, they can only improve the use of their cutting edge technology, and software. I am looking forward to this new inclusion from AMD. Great job AMD!!!!!!! I can't wait to use your new products!!!!!!!Your dedicated, and addictively insane consumer,MonkeyMan
   Reply
3. January 3, 2006 12:54 PM
   asphix said:
   [b]Originally posted by MonkeyMan:[/b][quote]This is a great step for AMD, because by aquiring the use of patented software from Rambus, they can only improve the use of their cutting edge technology, and software. I am looking forward to this new inclusion from AMD. Great job AMD!!!!!!! I can't wait to use your new products!!!!!!!MonkeyMan[/quote]I think you read it wrong. This is payment for technologies already in use by AMD that are patented by rambus. Basically, they were infringing on patents while unaware (or just not paying up).It's good to see credit given where its due. I never owned a computer with a Rambus based memory interface but I heard really good things about them. If they do come along with a new entry to the market it will be interesting to see where it stands against the competition, and what effects it has on the now rising prices of DDR.
   Reply
4. January 3, 2006 2:25 PM
   mtyson8 said:
   You know, I have always had PC133 SDRAM, Pentium III and when PC800 came out it seemed insane. I wanted it. Well, my friends were the first to get P4 in 2001, and they came with RDRAM so expensive i thought id never had it. Well, to me the RDRAM didnt seem that fast, at all. I noticed nothing. Then I got a dell in 2003 when they phased out rdram for pc3200 memory and i couldnt be happier.Im sure RDRAm has other technologies that are of benefit to AMD, but to me this seems like using RDRAM technology isnt useful.
   Reply
5. January 3, 2006 3:13 PM
   Bartzy said:
   Why AMD needs Rambus RDRAM technologies ? Maybe Rambus developes some other memory chips ? RDRAM is an old, not effective and rather expensive memory. Why should anyone want to use it when you can have DDR in and DDR2 at the future in half the price ?Intel did a horrible mistake when they supported RDRAM and SDRAM only with their CPUs, and I hope AMD learned from that mistake and will be wiser.
   Reply
6. January 3, 2006 3:17 PM
   PanicX said:
   From what I remember, the RDRAM wasn't a stellar performer, however what it did have was the ability to ramp up to much, much faster speeds. Unfortunately, they simply took too long to produce these high speed modules and Intel opted for DDR instead if for nothing more than to reduce costs for a negligable performance hit. Which was later mitigated through DDR 333, which was faster than RD800. Thats about when the patent infringement suits started to fly and Rambus really got bad PR for it. I'm not surprised that AMD is licensing the technology, its simply a calculated move to save on possible future litigation. The [url=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/0321rambuinfin.ht
   l]Infineon settlement[/url] resulted in Infineon paying upto $100 million just to license the technology.
   Reply
7. January 4, 2006 5:19 AM
   zachig said:
   I really hope this is a smart step for AMD, getting involved in RDRAM technology. I wish AMD all the best as I'm a huge fan of them and think they definitely outperfrom Intel's Desktop CPUs.
   Reply
8. January 4, 2006 8:26 AM
   mentaljedi said:
   Its good that AMD has gotten this sorted and out of the way. They're busy enough as it is.
   Reply
9. January 4, 2006 8:50 AM
   Mictlantecuhtli said:
   [b]Originally posted by asphix:[/b][quote]I never owned a computer with a Rambus based memory interface but I heard really good things about them.[/quote]If you had Nintendo 64 or PlayStation2, you had devices using Rambus memory.
   Reply

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