Rambus Joins IBM, Spansion in MirrorBit Flash Memory Quest

Rambus has inked two new and important licensing deals with IBM and Spansion on the DRAM market. The memory specialist has just announced that it licensed IBM its multi-protocol serial/deserializer (SerDes) cell technology that offers improved performance in networking, server and general ASIC applications.

According to IBM, the Rambus technology will help the company to implement a high-performance solution in its 45-nanometer silicon-on-insulator products.

The second partnership was signed between Rambus and memory specialist Spansion, and aims at delivering DDR engineering services in Spansion's upcoming solid-state storage products. Rambus will offer signal integrity simulations, system and package design, as well as precision in-system voltage and timing margining.

"Flash memory content in electronic devices continues to grow, enabling increasingly innovative and differentiated consumer electronics products," said Ali Pourkeramati, executive vice president, Applications and Platform Engineering, at Spansion. "Our deep Flash memory expertise coupled with Rambus? Signal integrity and memory interface experience will provide an enhanced opportunity to create the next generation of advanced MirrorBit Flash memory solutions."

Memory specialist Rambus does not manufacture memory-related products. Instead, the company licenses its intellectual property and technology patents to other companies that produce memory semiconductors following the Rambus design.

"With its preeminent expertise in Flash memory, Spansion is ideally positioned to deliver the breakthrough solutions needed by future consumer electronics products," said Martin Scott, senior vice president of Engineering at Rambus Inc. "Together, we look forward to making significant advancements in the capabilities of Flash memory systems."

The company has been accused of having manipulated the JEDEC Council to adopt memory standards that, in fact, were patented Rambus technologies, thus forcing DRAM manufacturers to pay royalty fees for choosing Rambus.

The recent court appeal in the legal dispute between Rambus and DRAM manufacturers ruled that, despite the fact that the IP supplier deceived the JEDEC engineering council, it did not harm the competition by adopting monopolistic tactics.

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