Licensing Options

Rambus provides a number of licensing options from licensing its entire portfolio of patents to licensing individual interface products (cells). Customers can choose the level of engineering services needed to incorproate Rambus technologies into their semiconductor and system designs.

* Off-the-shelf interface cells are Rambus and industry-standard solutions ported to microfabrication processes from leading silicon foundries.
** Custom interface cells are solutions for integrated device manufacturers (IDM) with proprietary microfabrication processes, supporting customer-defined specifications or Rambus/industry standards.

For complete interface solutions, Rambus offers various families of interface products: both leadership products such as XDR™ and RDRAM® memory interfaces, and FlexIO™ processor bus, as well as industry-standard solutions such as DDR memory interfaces. All licenses to Rambus intellectual property cells include patent licenses to technologies for use within the specific cells.

For customers who prefer to design their own interface or who wish to incorporate Rambus innovations into their products, Rambus offers licenses to its patents.

To receive information on how to license Rambus technology, please contact a Rambus salesperson.

Licensing and Scope

Rambus is willing to license all its patents. In the most typical patent license, Rambus licensing rates are determined from a base price list. The list is subject to change, and is expected to change over time. Rambus' practice has been to offer similarly situated licensees reasonably similar terms, with list prices that it believes to be consistent with industry norms for patents of similar importance. Typically, Rambus includes patent licenses with its interface cells and services.

Licensing Practices

Rambus develops technologies that are broadly applicable to chip interface and system design. Some of these technologies will be included in implementing applications and systems for certain industry specifications and standards, including SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, and DDR2 SDRAM. Rambus is open to licensing its technologies for use in proprietary and industry standard applications, at reasonable rates, to either companies or individuals.