A US electronics wire service is reporting a further distancing of the relationship between Intel and its memory design partner Rambus. According to Electronic Buyers' News, Intel has not invited Rambus to join a new consortium of memory manufacturers which are bidding to thrash out the specs of the next generation of synchronous memory. Earlier this month, we reported that the relationship between Intel and Rambus is more strained than it was, following the chip giant's decision to participate in the JEDEC standards body as it moves towards chipsets which support both PC-133 and double data rate (DDR) memory. That follows Intel's decision last September to support PC-133, when it accepted the fact that many PC manufacturers were unhappy with Rambus as a memory platform. The EBN article claimed that Intel, while inviting memory manufacturers including Samsung, Hyundai and Micron to join it in these discussions, has snubbed Rambus. Quantities of Rambus RIMMs for Intel's i820 chipset are not expected to arrive until Q1 of next year. ® See also Intel cuddles up to JEDEC SDRAM standards Rambus-DDR battle rages on Rambus-Intel contract set to expire