Rambus Buys Unity Semiconductor, Gets NAND Alternative

After losing a major patent against NVIDIA, Rambus has announced that it has acquired a privately-held memory technology company, complete with its own special portfolio.

Rambus has managed to get Unity Semiconductor to sign a deal through which the latter becomes part of the former in exchange for $35 million in cash.

That sum is the rough equivalent of 26.66 million Euro, give or take.

“Rambus provides our team the perfect environment to continue the technology development of non-volatile memory cells and architectures,” said David Eggleston, president and chief executive officer at Unity Semiconductor.

“Our comprehensive set of design, process and device solutions will complement Rambus’ existing strong technology portfolio and system capabilities.”

Unity possesses a solid state memory technology called CMOx, which was developed with the intention of providing an alternative to NAND.

For those that need a reminder, NAND flash memory chips are used in more or less every flash drive, memory card and solid state drive.

Rambus hopes to get its new patent portfolio licensed by companies wishing to develop cheaper, faster, more capacious and overall more reliable memory.

“At Rambus, we are creating disruptive technologies to enable future electronic products,” said Sharon Holt, senior vice president and general manager of the Semiconductor Business Group at Rambus.

“With the addition of Unity, we can develop non-volatile memory solutions that will advance semiconductor scaling beyond the limits of today’s NAND technology. This will enable new memory architectures that help meet ever-increasing consumer demands.”

Rambus does not have the best of reputations, having relied on patent infringement lawsuits and settlements as the primary source of income for years.

After the recent losses in court, one might say it definitely needs something new to go on. At the very least, the company won't be able to use the same patent troll tactics when it comes to CMOx, since no one actually uses this type of memory yet. Patent licensing deals are really the only way to go now.