Rambus coming back?

[BrentUnitedMem]

RAMBUS will soon fade away.

They are relying on things to come... well that's never too good.

Here's another BETTER thing to come:

Intel FB-DIMMs to offer real memory breakthroughs

full article:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15214

 

[Ice9]

Originally posted by: BrentUnitedMem
RAMBUS will soon fade away.

They are relying on things to come... well that's never too good.

Here's another BETTER thing to come:

Intel FB-DIMMs to offer real memory breakthroughs

First of all, Rambus isn't going to fade away. Not with it being the predominant technology in CELL. And Toshiba has bet the company on it.

And oh yeah, the PS3. That will be using Cell. Nope, no fading away there.....

And oh yeah! They're still profitable because their stuff is in HDTV's, PCI Express, and networking gear. Nope, that's not fading away either.

And didn't Intel say at the last IDF that they were discontinuing FB-DIMM because Rambus gently tapped 'em on the shoulder and said "we have patents that cover that"? hahaha

Remember, Intel and Rambus STILL have a cross-licensing agreement. Rambus would get a cut of that if Intel doesn't maintain that agreement So one way or another, Rambus still gets paid.

 

[BrentUnitedMem]

Yes, but FB-DIMMS is not related to RAMBUS.

If FB-DIMMS becomes some kind of memory Standard in arhcitecture, which I think it will.. check out the technology for yourself... RAMBUS will have fewer fights to pick.

I don't think Intel will pay RAMBUS for this technology. I hope not.

 

[Terumo]

If folks thought the Intel bashing was bad with their processors and using RDRAM, imagine how it'll be if they manufacturered memory too. If it's closed technology that'll work only on Intel processors, AMD folks will cry "MONOPOLY!!".

Personally, I just want to be able to buy 1gig of memory for less than $50. That won't happen when memory is traded as a commodity with price fixing.

 

[Ice9]

Originally posted by: BrentUnitedMem
Yes, but FB-DIMMS is not related to RAMBUS.

If FB-DIMMS becomes some kind of memory Standard in arhcitecture, which I think it will.. check out the technology for yourself... RAMBUS will have fewer fights to pick.

I don't think Intel will pay RAMBUS for this technology. I hope not.

FB-DIMMS *IS* related to Rambus. Rambus has already stated publicly that FB-DIMMs read on Rambus patents. If FB-DIMMs come to light, and Rambus/Intel no longer have a cross-licensing agreement, Rambus can sue for royalties since they're using an innovation that rambus already patented.

So, Intel would have 3 choices if they brought it to market (which is so highly unlikely, it's practically a no-show):

1. Release it and pay a royalty fee to Rambus
2. Release it and maintain their cross licensing agreement
3. Release it and fight Rambus in court.

Remember what patents are all about, folks. Patents give a person or company a LEGAL MONOPOLY for a specific amount of time.

 

[Ice9]

Originally posted by: Terumo
If folks thought the Intel bashing was bad with their processors and using RDRAM, imagine how it'll be if they manufacturered memory too. If it's closed technology that'll work only on Intel processors, AMD folks will cry "MONOPOLY!!".

Personally, I just want to be able to buy 1gig of memory for less than $50. That won't happen when memory is traded as a commodity with price fixing.

See, this whole FB-DIMM thing is silly.

If you hate Rambus because of what they do, you'd have to hate Intel for the same reason. Are they going to develop this spec, spend millions on engineering, prototyping and manufacturing, then give it away?

And do you think the AMD folks will have ready access to it?

Do you think the memory manufacturers will even want to MAKE it? They didn't even want to make RDRAM!

FB-DIMM is a pipe-dream that will NEVER, I repeat NEVER happen.

 

[BrentUnitedMem]

yeah?

And where did you hear that??

 

[BrentUnitedMem]

Originally posted by: Ice9

Originally posted by: BrentUnitedMem
Yes, but FB-DIMMS is not related to RAMBUS.

If FB-DIMMS becomes some kind of memory Standard in arhcitecture, which I think it will.. check out the technology for yourself... RAMBUS will have fewer fights to pick.

I don't think Intel will pay RAMBUS for this technology. I hope not.

FB-DIMMS *IS* related to Rambus. Rambus has already stated publicly that FB-DIMMs read on Rambus patents. If FB-DIMMs come to light, and Rambus/Intel no longer have a cross-licensing agreement, Rambus can sue for royalties since they're using an innovation that rambus already patented.

So, Intel would have 3 choices if they brought it to market (which is so highly unlikely, it's practically a no-show):

1. Release it and pay a royalty fee to Rambus
2. Release it and maintain their cross licensing agreement
3. Release it and fight Rambus in court.

Remember what patents are all about, folks. Patents give a person or company a LEGAL MONOPOLY for a specific amount of time.

FB-DIMM related to RAMBUS? Where did you hear that from?

 

[Ice9]

Originally posted by: BrentUnitedMem
FB-DIMM related to RAMBUS? Where did you hear that from?

http://www.us.design-reuse.com/news/news8005.html

Yknow, it's funny...

RASER makes its way into PCI-Express...
Rambus holds patents on FB-DIMM....
Redwood and XDR are in Cell....

All this interesting and kick-ass technology that works faster than ANYTHING we're using on a desktop PC today - and people STILL insist on hating Rambus.

It's really quite silly.

 

[BrentUnitedMem]

So basically...

RAMBUS "claims" they own exclusive rights to every memory module technology out there!

Something is definitely wrong here.

 

[Terumo]

Originally posted by: BrentUnitedMem
So basically...

RAMBUS "claims" they own exclusive rights to every memory module technology out there!

Something is definitely wrong here.

If they have the intellectual property rights, they could. But until that evidence is made public in full, we can only say at least, that a conspiracy of killing Rambus has been established in court.

Conspiracies are awfully hard to prove, but apparently from those memos there was one going against Rambus. Read the memos yourself.

It'll be interesting how far and deep the conspiracy went -- like how many other memory manufacturers cooperated to kill RDRAM.

Maybe Rambus has done every computer owner a favor by exposing how companies get together and conspire to price fix, too. Price fixing is bad news for computer owners as it's us that have to pay inflated prices.

 

[Ice9]

Originally posted by: BrentUnitedMem
So basically...

RAMBUS "claims" they own exclusive rights to every memory module technology out there!

Something is definitely wrong here.

Infineon's chief dram engineer Willie Meyer said it best in the dreaded "Deadly Menace" memo before Rambus became a member of JEDEC:

"One day all computers will have to be build like this, but hopefully without the royalties going to RAMBUS."

Look, it's like this. Rambus (Drs. Farmwald & Horowitz) had the right idea. They had it before everyone else (back in 1988). The company is loaded with engineers, and NOT lawyers like the average dolt believes.

They simply don't want to manufacture anything. That's what people can't seem to grasp. They want to be the technology behind the product. They simply don't want to manufacture the product. Why does that seem SO BAD to people?

 

[BrentUnitedMem]

Originally posted by: Terumo

Originally posted by: BrentUnitedMem
So basically...

RAMBUS "claims" they own exclusive rights to every memory module technology out there!

Something is definitely wrong here.

If they have the intellectual property rights, they could. But until that evidence is made public in full, we can only say at least, that a conspiracy of killing Rambus has been established in court.

Conspiracies are awfully hard to prove, but apparently from those memos there was one going against Rambus. Read the memos yourself.

It'll be interesting how far and deep the conspiracy went -- like how many other memory manufacturers cooperated to kill RDRAM.

Maybe Rambus has done every computer owner a favor by exposing how companies get together and conspire to price fix, too. Price fixing is bad news for computer owners as it's us that have to pay inflated prices.

You have a good point.

 

[Ice9]

What I don't understand is why websites like these don't expose this crap for what it really is.

Oh wait, I think I know why. Rambus is a tiny company without the influence of companies like Micron, Infineon or Hynix.

But then again, AMD seems to get more press on websites like this, even though Intel makes far more money.

Sounds like a paradox to me.

 

[Terumo]

What was exploited is the hatred towards Intel. It's easy to poison that well (as it's easy to do so with bashing MS), because Intel is Establishment. By the very nature of the internet it's anti-Establishment. The memory manufacturers helped in promoting the bad PR, and probably even courting AMD and it's instance for using DDR. Mutual hate and mutual target and Rambus is the bad guy (as they struck a deal with Intel), when it's turning out that wasn't the case.

I hope Tom's Hardware eats it's shorts over all this too. They helped fan the hatred a lot.

Rambus may not be the most kosher business, but on the ethical side conspiracies are worse. Every consumer suffers in the end, not only in the pocketbook, we know now how corrupt the industry is (before folks could only speculate).

 

[Ice9]

Originally posted by: Terumo
What was exploited is the hatred towards Intel. It's easy to poison that well (as it's easy to do so with bashing MS), because Intel is Establishment. By the very nature of the internet it's anti-Establishment. The memory manufacturers helped in promoting the bad PR, and probably even courting AMD and it's instance for using DDR. Mutual hate and mutual target and Rambus is the bad guy (as they struck a deal with Intel), when it's turning out that wasn't the case.

I hope Tom's Hardware eats it's shorts over all this too. They helped fan the hatred a lot.

Rambus may not be the most kosher business, but on the ethical side conspiracies are worse. Every consumer suffers in the end, not only in the pocketbook, we know now how corrupt the industry is (before folks could only speculate).

Actually, it wasn't so much TomsHardware that fanned those flames as it was a guy by the name of "Van Smith", some poor dolt who initially worked for Bert McComas at Inquest. Bert made Van Smith a Rambus Hating Machine. He eventually worked for TomsHardware, poisoned THAT well, Tom fired him for being such an anti-intel/anti-rambus zealot, then went on to make his own "vanshardware.com" page, that most regarded as largely useless and a simple media outlet for AMD fanboyism.

Now, i'm not anti-AMD - I think AMD makes a good product that simply needs to be coupled with a chipset as solid as Intel's. But even the staunchest AMD advocate could see Van Smith's material and call it what it is.

So yeah, everyone took digs on Rambus because that's what they were used to. It was a domino effect that worked VERY well against Rambus. Intel saw that, the fact that memory manufacturers were being cartel-like, and decided that it wasn't in their best interests to openly support Rambus anymore (even though their technology still requires it for things like PCI Express and whatever that FB-DIMM turns out to be, if anything).

So, how many of you readers have read all this and have read the writing on the wall?

-k