Quite an interesting read on the Rambus situation

[Napalm]

Haven't seen this (http://www.tomshardware.com/column/00q3/000719/index.html) posted anywhere here yet. It is an account of the past, present and future of the memory industry and the involvement of Rambus.

Here is the summary for those too lazy to wade through:

"Rambus's recent advances might well have been its last major triumph into achieving dominance of the memory technology landscape. Though the Toshiba and Hitachi wins brought Rambus a second life, it doesn't appear that there will be many more companies willing to pay royalties to Rambus for SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM. Rambus now finds cohesive opposition in the form of VIA, Micron, JEDEC, ADT and perhaps even Intel and Samsung, its two closest allies. Momentum is building for an antitrust case levied against Rambus by this imposing coalition. Rambus may also be facing a civil suit regarding prior art issues involving SDRAM.

The rollout of DDR-SDRAM appears to be continuing with ever growing momentum. The first DDR chipset, the ALi M1647 for the AMD Athlon, should launch August 1st, with DDR-SDRAM production ramping in that month as well. The first motherboards supporting DDR-SDRAM will probably contain the ALi chipset and arrive in the fourth quarter.

The playing field now seems to be more than leveled. Rambus's future now lies with its RDRAM memory performance with the upcoming Pentium 4, as RDRAM now is a nonstarter with the Coppermine. Its play for control for SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM not only looks less and less likely, but has also managed to solidify a broad coalition of enemies.

Napalm

 

[apoppin]

I had thought that this is the conclusion that we already reached. That Rambus was stepping on too many toes and alienating its associates. Even Intel is disenchanted with Rambus as a future potential competitor and have licenced VIA to produce DDRAM chipsets for their P3s.

Toshiba and Hitachi were more or less forced to roll over by the position they are in - either trying to sell their RAM manufacturing or using RDRAM for the Playstation. The other memory companies are not in so weak of a position and can gain a lot by uniting against Rambus.

Looks like time to sell their stock (if I had any).

 

[Napalm]

Apoppen:

I meant that I had not seen the link posted here, not the info contained in the link. Simply a nicely written piece summarizing all that has transpired.

Napalm

 

[Ulysses]

It's an interesting article I guess. But it also looks like just another rag by Tom on Intel and Rambus one more time.

For a while now I've been waiting for a new system and I really just care whether P4 & Rambus is better and what it will cost. Or whether an AMD & DDR SDRAM system is better and what it will cost. All the hit-generating gossip at Tom's HW or elsewhere isn't really very meaningful to me - it's too biased - just show me the goods. One of the things I like about AnandTech is that in their articles they haven't gotten into this kind of thing, but just keep churning out those benchmarks, etc.

 

[apoppin]

Sorry, I misunderstood you. One of Tom's less rabid anti-Rambus articles. I guess he is mellowing as Rambus is slipping toward oblivion. But nothing new at all in his articles - just a summary of what we already knew.

 

[Tripleshot]

apoppin

<<Looks like time to sell their stock (if I had any).>>

I made that same statement two weeks ago.It holds true today.

I think it is obvious to most of us that Rambus spells failure.At least the path they are on now.They may change thier ways,knowing what reputation they now must endure.

Intels recent shift to find a way to get DDr support for there pentium class chips opens the path for Quad pumped DDR for willimette's 400mhz bus.It could happen and that would dry up Rambus overnight.
(I would sure like to be on the team searching for the Quad DDR Cure for the Rambus Cancer)
IMHO

 

[RC]

I give Tom credit for making such a bold public stand against RAMBUS while other hardware sites were more passive. However it is quickly becoming old news. Most people now realize that RAMBUS's legal tactics and business practices are very unethical.

My current interests are in learning more about the recently announced Intel Pentium V, performance capability of AMD's Mustang processor, DDR266, etc...

 

[JellyBaby]

RC, I agree but we must continue to restate facts lest rammerbus rises from the dead.

The online technical sites did a great job revealing the truth about RDRAM while the print magazines (at least the ziffies) spewed the normal &quot;RDRAM is best, just get it&quot; stuff. I commend 'em (online journalist). It was a fine run of stories.

 

[apoppin]

Actually, the 'zines were supporting Rambus while Intel had their full support behind them. Now, it seems Intel wants to distance itself from them and we are seeing far more negative about Rambus.

Do you still think it was an accident that RDRAM vs SDRAM benchmarks were published by Intel undermining Rambus? Of course, Intel's OFFICIAL policy is to support them (or get sued).