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Samsung signs on Rambus DDR and SDRAM dotted line

Good news at last for toll collector

Samsung, the world's second biggest DRAM producer, has acknowledged Rambus patents for SDRAM & DDR SDRAM memory and controllers which interface with this type of memory. And it is to stump up royalty payments to Rambus when using these technologies.

At last, some good news for Rambus, possibly the world's most unpopular and, almost certainly, the most litigious semiconductor IP company.

The agreement with Samsung shows just why Rambus is so controversial - "the royalties (which Samsung will pay) on DDR SDRAM and the controllers which directly interface with DDR SDRAM are greater than the RDRAM compatible rates," the chip designer says.

In other words, Rambus is levelling the playing field by upping the costs of DDR memory, rather than lowering the royalties for RDRAM.

Samsung joins NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi and Oki as signatories to Rambus SDRAM and DDR SDRAM licences. Collectively, they account for 40 per cent of the world DRAM market, according to Dataquest figures cited by Rambus. ®

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