Rambus and NVIDIA Sign Patent License Agreement

[btarunr]

Rambus Inc., one of the world's premier technology licensing companies, and NVIDIA, the worldwide leader in visual computing, today announced they have signed a patent license agreement related to certain memory controllers.

Under the agreement, Rambus has granted NVIDIA a patent license for certain memory controllers at a 1 percent royalty rate for SDR memory controllers and a 2 percent royalty rate for other memory controllers, including DDR, DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR, LPDDR2, GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, and portions of GDDR5 memory controllers. NVIDIA has granted no licenses to Rambus.

The signed patent license agreement went into effect on August 12, 2010. The parties have not signed any releases of liability, nor dismissed any outstanding litigation between them.

The terms of the license are per the agreement that Rambus offers as part of its commitment with the European Commission. A sample of the Memory Controller License Agreement is available at this page.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[983264]

Hmmm

Does this make Nvidia escaped a very dangerous situation?

 

[tkpenalty]

Does this make Nvidia escaped a very dangerous situation?

yep... looks like the EU saved them. Would have been ridiculous if all of that inventory was rendered illegal...

 

[983264]

yep... looks like the EU saved them. Would have been ridiculous if all of that inventory was rendered illegal...

Well, that's good for them... If not, they will be dominated by ATi in the line of Graphics Processor...

 

[WarEagleAU]

I am glad to see this come out like this and hopefully Nvidia won't have any judgements against them from the Rambus suit. curious though as to why the hell or even how Rambus has any sort of patent on GDDR memory controllers. Does this mean that ATI did something with them??

 

[buggalugs]

I am glad to see this come out like this and hopefully Nvidia won't have any judgements against them from the Rambus suit. curious though as to why the hell or even how Rambus has any sort of patent on GDDR memory controllers. Does this mean that ATI did something with them??

Thats what i was thinking.....maybe ATI is next on the hit list??

These kind of stories come up all the time, its like the computer industry are a bunch of thieves and scam artists lol.

 

[Mussels]

rambus is a big player in the memory market, who do you think makes the XDR memory in the PS3?

basically, they made patents, Nvidia breached em.

Whether ATI has deals with them or just doesnt use their patented designs, i dont know.

 

[bear jesus]

ATI/AMD was already licensed and renewed it earlyer this year

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/memory/display/20100331154154_AMD_and_Rambus_Renew_Patent_License_Agreement.html

 

[newtekie1]

I am glad to see this come out like this and hopefully Nvidia won't have any judgements against them from the Rambus suit. curious though as to why the hell or even how Rambus has any sort of patent on GDDR memory controllers. Does this mean that ATI did something with them??

Rambus had some patents related to the memory controllers. When the memory started to become standard in the industry Rambus hid the fact that they held the patents, and then started filing lawsuits against everyone in the industry once the memory was a standard. Some caved and paid royalties right away, and others fought Rambus' shady business practices. And in fact they've been investigated for patent ambushing by the EU, and it was decided that Rambus would not have been able to get the royalties that they are getting if it wasn't for their patent ambush tactics.

Basically, Rambus hasn't come up with anything new technology wise in years, and rely on lawsuits and patent ambushing to make money.:shadedshu

 

[the54thvoid]

Rambus had some patents related to the memory controllers. When the memory started to become standard in the industry Rambus hid the fact that they held the patents, and then started filing lawsuits against everyone in the industry once the memory was a standard. Some caved and paid royalties right away, and others fought Rambus' shady business practices. And in fact they've been investigated for patent ambushing by the EU, and it was decided that Rambus would not have been able to get the royalties that they are getting if it wasn't for their patent ambush tactics.

Basically, Rambus hasn't come up with anything new technology wise in years, and rely on lawsuits and patent ambushing to make money.:shadedshu

Yeah, i'd read about this too when i'd seen them filing against Nvidia. Especially the bit about not having made anything new recently in terms of the NV infringments.

But on the flipside, NV aren't exactly pure as snow when it comes to it's own dealings (this reference to it's soldering problems on the older chips, 2007-2008) http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10245593-64.html

This is one of the reasons why Apple may have moved to ATI according to some sources.

 

[JATownes]

I think all companies try to pull one over on the other guys, if they can get away with it. Rambus is a failing company trying to make money wherever they can. Nvidia jus got caught up in the fallout.

 

[DannibusX]

Rambus owns the patent to the technology, they are far from failing. Litigation and copyright protections happen between companies all the time. You just hear about it more in the tech industry.

 

[PCpraiser100]

I wonder how far this will affect Nvidia's future product line?

 

[pr0n Inspector]

fucking Rambus again.