14 DAY TRIAL // Although it initially started as a very respectable memory manufacturer, Rambus seems to have slightly changed its focus over the past few years, the company filing more patent lawsuits than launching really innovative products lately, and for this reason, some companies, such as Elpida, prefer to go ahead and pay the licensing fees instead of getting ready for some serious litigation.
So, as you might remember, Rambus recently sued NVIDIA, Broadcom, STMicroelectronics, MediaTek, Freescale and LSI, claiming that all of these companies' products infringe on its patents and requesting an immediate cease of all imports in the US, as well as (quite obviously) the paying of some monetary damages on the side.
The respective patents cover DDR. DDR2, DDR3, mobile DDR, LPDDR and LPDDR2, plus GDDR3 memory controllers, as well as PCI Express, certain Serial ATA, some Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), as well as DisplayPort.
Elpida, on the other hand, decided to opt for a lot less combative measure and renewed their patent license agreement with Rambus.
As the companies inform us, this agreement covers Elpida’s range of memory products including SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR, LPDDR2, GDDR3 and GDDR5 DRAM.
In addition to industry-standard DRAM products, Elpida ships the world’s fastest memory device, the 7.2Gbps XDR DRAM, based on the Rambus XDR memory architecture.
“We are extremely pleased to have licensed another one of the top three memory companies. This agreement continues our licensing momentum and renews a winning partnership that has produced best-in-class memory solutions for customers,” said Sharon Holt, senior vice president and general manager of the Semiconductor Business Group at Rambus.
"Elpida’s customers now have the full benefit of licensed products using our patented innovations to enrich the consumer experience of electronic systems.”
Of course, it remains to be seen now what will happen with the company's numerous lawsuits and whether others will prefer to settle the matter out of court, but this is something only time will tell.