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FTC Dismisses Complaint Against Rambus

Posted by timothy on from the endurance-contest dept.

swordboy writes "A federal judge just threw out the FTC lawsuit against Rambus. This has been discussed at length here before but this changes the landscape yet again. An interesting, possibly coincidental item is that Intel just today announced a new and very powerful DRAM interface that bypasses Rambus IP altogether."

4 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Woo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now, the question is, does this offer the same price-point as DDR?

    I mean, DDR-II has a significant price-premium over current DDR, but if it doesn't....

    Woo. It might be worth going Intel for once :)

  2. Time is of the essence by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Intel just today announced a new and very powerful DRAM interface that bypasses Rambus IP altogether.

    Unfortunately, most court disputes between hi-tech companies finish long after the technologies in question are dead. Just look at Lineo/Canopy : when they won the DRDOS settlement against Microsoft, Windows 95 and DOS were already just a painful reminder of the past.

    So yes, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Intel can do without the Rambus IP. However, I doubt it's the real reason, because even when the disputed technologies are obsolete when the court reaches its verdict (or the parties settle), the money from damages or settlement is very real.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. Re:Both news items are exciting by CaptBubba · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I don't think the companies would be so hostile if they had know ahead of time that they would be paying Rambus royalties. I think the issue was more that Rambus slipped their patented process into the design and then, when it was too late to remove it, they told everyone to pay up. I think the manufacturers were rightfully pissed off. This is with SDRAM (and by extension DDR) tech, not RDRAM, which everyone expects Rambus to charge for.

    That said I think it is unsuprizing that Intel and the manufacturers would look somewhere else for the next generation of RAM technologies. They'd be foolish to deal with a companay that had tricked them before.

  4. Re:RAMBUS is so dead by Best+ID+Ever! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually it's more like RAMBUS has *been* dead ever since DDR / DDR2 became competitive in terms of prices.

    I think you mean RDRAM is dead. RAMBUS, the company, is still very much alive thanks to this ruling, which allows them to extort royalties for SDRAM.