Rambus Loses 7-year Patent Battle Against Micron, Hynix

patent trolling Rambus loses? about time.

AAAYYYEEEAAA karate chop!! take that Rambus

and amd are using this for their new vid cards............ AMD is making a lot of bad moves lately.

Let that be a lesson for anyone out there that wants to release a memory module that performs ever so slightly better than the competition for 3 times the price.

hopefully we will see some corrective action for the biggest patent troll, Apple.

If the 7970 is priced about the same at launch (~$400) then i wouldn't call it a bad move as supposedly this type of memory increases bandwidth by 50% over gddr5 and consumes 30% less power. So if these things hold true we might see rambus coming back into relevence in the memory sector.

Exactly what Pentium3 compatible motherboards supported RDRAM??? The only boards I've ever seen support it were all for Pentium4 processors....

Rumors say AMD is using XDR....not RDRAM....

RDRAM was crazy price. And the ram companies did nothing to lower costs. the technology was not a prioity compared to other technoligies. Due to the high price, intel was forced to move to PC133/DDR.

So I can see why RAMBUS would be pissed.

THere is no reason RDRAM was so expensive to buy. RAM companies just didn't give a crap and didn't care to manufacture enough to reduce costs. If you think about it, they had Itel pushing the technology. ANd if Intel cannot push the technology then you know something is wrong.

They had a good opportunity, and wind was taken from their sails.

RAMBUS turned evil after this.

It wouldn't of been bad if RDRAM took off when it did, then prices for faster DDR would of been cheaper. I remember DDR being limited to 400, and there was special grade OCZ stuff. Well if RDAM took off, I am sure ram would of been DDR500/DDR600, and DDR2 would of been pushed faster. It was not until DDR3 that ram speeds starting to go crazy, meanwhile crappy ram at slower speeds was still being pushed. RAM speeds did need a kick in the ass back then

Do the oldest ones remember Cirrus Logic doing graphics chips? They were hot back in 1994. At about the same time as Intel and the P3, they released a new line of graphics chips with integrated 3D processor, using Rambus ram instead of the then-hot EDO ram. The chip was a total flop, nothing close to the projected performance expectations. Single-pixel ops were not efficient. Too much latency. They made a version of this same graphics chip but using SDRAM. It worked much better, but it was too late, their oem customers had moved to other chip manufacturers. Cirrus Logic nearly died.

Excellent. Now shrivel up and die, you damnable patent troll.

That's what they get. RDRAM was hideously expensive at the time, due in no small part to Ramdass' license fees. If they were smart, they would have dropped the fee a bit more to bring the price in line with performance. Instead, they thought they were hot stuff, and not they pay the price.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing Rambus' CEO, Board, and other high level executives have to explain to their families why they can't get that second yacht now.

Actually, the price had almost NOTHING to do with licensing fees. They just had a terrible time making PC800. Eventually, it proved superior to DDR, and cost the same, but by then the reputation was so bad, it died. When they were both out, RDRAM outperformed DDR on the Pentium 4.

Ironically, when RDRAM was very expensive, and for a processor that couldn't effectively use it (although the i840 worked well), Intel was pushing RDRAM. When RDRAM prices finally fell so they were the same as DDR, and it had a processor that could use it, Intel walked away from it. Weird.

This news isn't the end off of this. Rambus will appeal it, and the next result could be different. If you can get RMBS very cheap, it's a very good stock to own.

Off the top of my head, the intel branded VC820 motherboard supported rdram for Slot 1 PIII processors. I had one paired with an 866mhz p3, still have it stuck in a closet somewhere, but the memory was stupid expensive and had to be used in pairs or with terminator cards for any empty slots. I believe Intel also released a dual socket workstation board based on the same chipset if I remember right.

Definitely put a smile on my face reading that.

High latency RDRAM combined with a Netburst architecture CPU. What a lousy combo.

rambus was right to sue for price fixing, but the patent trolling that followed was bad.
when rdram came out it seemed SO bad, price-performance wise. i remember opting for a ddr supporting mobo instead of rdram supporting mobo after reading rdram reviews. i don't regret that one bit (i do regret buying a space heater tho')

OMFG justice was served in a US court. Unbelievable. I am happy on this ruling.

Even a broken watch tells the right time twice a day, this result is good but I cant help but think this a rare occurance

Here's and interesting read from 2000: http://www.anandtech.com/show/500/4

an*

Stock drops ~$19 to $4.63!? Ouch, that's got to hurt.

But strangely, I don't feel bad for them!

Intel i820 chipsets for P3 were designed for RDRAM, but most came with the Memory Translator Hub to use PC100 SDRAM. But due to a bug in the MTH and the high cost of RDRAM the i820 was short lived. i815pe was the intel chipset to have for P3

You can't appeal a jury's fact based determination. You can only appeal rulings of law. Nice try though, broker dude.......... LOL.

This case has been going on for seven years. The court system is going to flush it down the toilet where it belongs. The best that Rambus can hope for is that someone buys the company before it goes bankrupt. But most likely they will just wait until afterwards and get the licenses from the bankruptcy court for pennies on the dollar (remember 3DFX and what a steal that was for Nvidia?).

Actually, by that time Intel was not as strong at pushing technology. They had made a few bad choices and the competition was giving them a hard time. They had no technichal advatage (or at least not enough) to push that technology despite the price. If it happened today, maybe it would work.

i love the fact that investors lost millions

Die rambus DIE! They also caused memory prices to go up. And rdram was useless for p3 systems. Good thing about rdram is that it helped sell a lot of AMD systems. A buddy spend x4 times the cost on ram for a junky slow p4 @ 1.6 ghz that was slower than my p3 866mhz system .

I hate that company.

Not weird at all. Intel at the time stated quite clearly they preferred to do business with companies that competed in the marketplace, not the court room. Of course, they were committed for a time, but dumped Rambus as soon as the contracts were up.

YESSSSS!!!!

Take that patent IP chasing scum. If anyone knows the story behind this, cRAMBUS, took this idea out of a JEDEC meeting and then patented it. Scum. Pure scum. RAMBUS should change their name to "Pure IP chasing SCUM.

Strike a BIG victory for the free market.

"HAA HA"