NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO “RIDE” RAMBUS

September 1, 2000

COMMERCIAL NEWS

New York, N.Y. — Monica Rivituso reports that last Tuesday was another bumpy day on the ‘Bus – Rambus, that is.

Shares of the semiconductor company fell 4% Tuesday after memory-chip maker Micron Technology (MU) filed a lawsuit alleging that Rambus violated federal antitrust laws and engaged in “illegal and anticompetitive acts” to acquire and control a certain memory technology called synchronous DRAM – the most common form of memory used in personal computers today. Micron, the largest U.S. maker of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips also asserts that certain Rambus patent claims are invalid and nonenforceable.

In many ways, Micron’s move isn’t entirely unexpected. Rambus has been on a heavy-duty campaign to defend its patented technology – and to expand the reach of those patents. But now one of the largest memory-chip manufacturers in the world is calling some of Rambus’s patents into question. Whether other manufacturers follow Micron’s lead remains to be seen, but an important issue has been raised: are Rambus’s patents as broad as it claims?

It’s an important question to answer, because patents are what Rambus is all about. Often referred to as a “chipless” semiconductor company, Rambus doesn’t actually make any chips. Rather, as an intellectual-property company, it licenses designs to memory-chip makers. Its chief product is a technology that speeds up the data transfer rates for memory chips, something that Rambus is pushing to become the next memory standard. But so far, adoption of so-called Rambus DRAM, or RDRAM, has been slow going because the chips are more costly to produce and carry license fees.

Recently, Rambus stepped up protection of its patent portfolio by filing lawsuits against chip makers it claimed were using RDRAM without paying licensing fees. Thing is, these claims weren’t limited to RDRAM. Instead, Rambus maintained that portions of its technology were being used in more mainstream memory standards like synchronous DRAM, or SDRAM, and another type of memory called double data rate, or DDR.

And that’s where things get sticky. Rambus DRAM might not be setting the world on fire just yet, but supporters say it’s another thing if Rambus can lay some licensing claim to commonly used SDRAM.

So far, Rambus has inked a handful of SDRAM and DDR agreements, including one with Hitachi (HIT) and another with Toshiba. While Rambus believers maintain these agreements proved the company had a legitimate claim over the memory standards, others say the confidential agreements may not amount to much. Notably absent from Rambus’s string of freshly inked deals was one with Micron Technology.

In its lawsuit, Micron says Rambus cannot belatedly lay claim to any SDRAM technology. According to the filing, back in the 1990s both Rambus and Micron participated in a semiconductor-memory industry association that was developing open standards for SDRAM. Micron claims that in order to develop a “truly” open standard, members agreed to inform others in the group if they had any patents or patent applications in areas the association was covering. In addition, the filing states, members of this group agreed to license such patents to other association members free or at “reasonable” terms if the group adopted a standard that included any of those patents. Now, Micron’s claiming that Rambus “subverted the open-standards process” so it could obtain a monopoly over SDRAM technology and the SDRAM market.

“Rambus applied for patents that purported to cover the subject matter of the standards under development” by the industry association, the filing states. “Rambus breached its agreement to disclose any knowledge it had of such patents.”

Micron spokesman Grant Jones says that because Rambus has been “very aggressive” with its patent portfolio and has already filed suit against some companies, “we felt in the interest of our shareholders, our customers, the public and employees that this is really the best course of action to take.”

Rambus issued a statement, saying that it initiated negotiations with Micron to license Rambus’s intellectual property for SDRAM and DDR. “Rather than negotiate, Micron chose to litigate,” the company stated. Rambus expects to prevail in this litigation and to be fairly compensated for the use of its IP.” Rambus didn’t return calls for comment by press time.

As Rambus makes its rounds in the lawsuit department, did Micron feel that it was next in line? Hard to say. Micron’s Jones brushed off the question as something that could only be “pure speculation” at this point. But there is the argument that Micron is going on the offensive instead of sitting back and waiting for Rambus to show up on its doorstep with a complaint of its own. Even though Micron has a reputation for having a fine legal team, the Boise, Idaho, chip-making concern is still putting its neck on the line, says Jim Handy, a memory analyst at Dataquest.

“There is a possibility that having a Rambus license negotiated on good terms is going to be something that is of a lot of value in the future,” Handy said. “If they’re burning a bridge with Rambus, and if the Rambus interface becomes a very necessary part of Micron’s portfolio, then it’s going to sting Micron if Rambus elects not to overlook this during contract negotiations.”

Whenever the topic of Rambus comes up, another chip heavyweight, Intel, is sure to be discussed next. Intel has been a major proponent for RDRAM adoption since it got behind the technology four years ago. As memory makers have been slow to adopt RDRAM, there’s been some concern that Intel’s support would waver.

Enter the Pentium 4. Initially, Intel’s upcoming chip was supposed to support only RDRAM memory. But because Intel’s customers wanted the P4 to support less expensive memories, the chip giant decided to introduce another chipset next year that supports SDRAM and possibly DDR. While Intel denied this meant it was pulling back from its support of RDRAM, other market watchers weren’t so certain.

On Tuesday, Intel had little to say about the latest legal developments on the Rambus front, and dismissed the notion that the company had retreated from its support of the company’s technology. “We’re not a party to the litigation and as a matter of policy we do not comment on litigations between other companies,” said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. “With respect to our position on Rambus, it continues to be the same. We still believe Rambus technology is the memory technology of choice for high-performance PC microprocessors. We haven’t changed our position at all.”

The latest developments in the Rambus saga rattled the shares Tuesday, but then again, this isn’t a stock for the faint of heart. Consider that at the beginning of the year, Rambus shares raced ahead 660% in two-and-a-half months. But Rambus is also known for rattling investors when it hits a pothole: On Tuesday, the stock fell 8% at one point, and it’s 40.2% off its 52-week high of $135 (though that still puts it up 378% year-to-date). Never mind that the current price assumes a fantastic P/E of 486. Rambus supporters tend to be diehards who hang on for the ride.

“Looks like another interesting day on the bus,” wrote one person on Raging Bull’s message board Tuesday morning. “Unfortunately, this will delay our trip to Pluto for a while. But once Micron drops its case or it is thrown out of court, we will resume our trek. Hope for the best!”

Ebullient investors aside, Micron has raised an issue that could linger. It might have some company, but then again, Micron might fight this battle on its own, says Dataquest’s Handy. Either way, the ‘Bus ride continues. Given this stock’s history, investors may want to fasten their seatbelts. For more information and analysis of companies and mutual funds, visit SmartMoney.com at http://www.smartmoney.com/ .

============================================================

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion XL — were added to the benchmark suite as MLPerf continues Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing power it brings to artificial intelligence.  Nvidia's DGX Read more…

Call for Participation in Workshop on Potential NSF CISE Quantum Initiative

March 26, 2024

Editor’s Note: Next month there will be a workshop to discuss what a quantum initiative led by NSF’s Computer, Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate could entail. The details are posted below in a Ca Read more…

Waseda U. Researchers Reports New Quantum Algorithm for Speeding Optimization

March 25, 2024

Optimization problems cover a wide range of applications and are often cited as good candidates for quantum computing. However, the execution time for constrained combinatorial optimization applications on quantum device Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at the network layer threatens to make bigger and brawnier pro Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HBM3E memory as well as the the ability to train 1 trillion pa Read more…

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing po Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HB Read more…

Nvidia Looks to Accelerate GenAI Adoption with NIM

March 19, 2024

Today at the GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia launched a new offering aimed at helping customers quickly deploy their generative AI applications in a secure, s Read more…

The Generative AI Future Is Now, Nvidia’s Huang Says

March 19, 2024

We are in the early days of a transformative shift in how business gets done thanks to the advent of generative AI, according to Nvidia CEO and cofounder Jensen Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, codenamed Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

Intel Won’t Have a Xeon Max Chip with New Emerald Rapids CPU

December 14, 2023

As expected, Intel officially announced its 5th generation Xeon server chips codenamed Emerald Rapids at an event in New York City, where the focus was really o Read more…

IBM Quantum Summit: Two New QPUs, Upgraded Qiskit, 10-year Roadmap and More

December 4, 2023

IBM kicks off its annual Quantum Summit today and will announce a broad range of advances including its much-anticipated 1121-qubit Condor QPU, a smaller 133-qu Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire