Rambus CEO eager to move beyond the courtroom -- Harold Hughes discusses his company's legal dramas and the development of the Cell processor
April 27, 2005
Rambus CEO Harold Hughes hopes his company's name won't always remind the memory industry of black-robed judges and endless pages of court filings.
It's been five years since Rambus and the memory industry kicked off their legal journey back and forth through various courtrooms across the U.S. In 2000, Rambus sued vendors such as Infineon Technologies, Hynix Semiconductor (Profile, Products, Articles), and Micron Technology alleging the memory companies were using Rambus' patented memory technology in their chips without a license. Those memory companies countersued, claiming Rambus' patents were invalid because the company should have disclosed them during the development of the SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM) standard.
The fiery rhetoric from both sides has cooled of late, after an unfavorable ruling from Judge Robert Payne of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia sent Rambus to the settlement table with Infineon in March. However, its patent claims against Hynix were cleared to proceed to trial on Monday. And an antitrust case as well as patent infringement suits over the emerging DDR2 (double data rate) standard will keep Rambus' Senior Vice President and General Counsel John Danforth, or as Hughes refers to him, "my rock star," busy for months to come.
Hughes, who became the Los Altos, California, company's CEO in January, sat down with IDG News Service Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in the company's legal drama as well as its participation in the development of the Cell processor with its memory and I/O bus designs. The following is an edited transcript.
Click here to read more ...
Related News
- Harold Hughes to Retire as Rambus Chief Executive Officer
- SilTerra Leverages Silvaco's Library Characterization and Optimization Tools to Boost Efficiency in the Development of its Foundry Standard Cell IPs
- CEO interview: Minima's Tuomas Hollman on why static timing sign-off is over
- Mentor's Questa and Veloce platforms help SimpleMachines dramatically speed development of its first AI processor
- Graphcore CEO Touts 'Most Complex Processor' Ever
Breaking News
- Arteris Joins Intel Foundry Accelerator Ecosystem Alliance Program to Support Advanced Semiconductor Designs
- SkyeChip Joins Intel Foundry Accelerator IP Alliance
- Siemens and Intel Foundry advance their collaboration to enable cutting-edge integrated circuits and advanced packaging solutions for 2D and 3D IC
- Cadence Expands Design IP Portfolio Optimized for Intel 18A and Intel 18A-P Technologies, Advancing AI, HPC and Mobility Applications
- Synopsys and Intel Foundry Propel Angstrom-Scale Chip Designs on Intel 18A and Intel 18A-P Technologies
Most Popular
- QuickLogic Delivers eFPGA Hard IP for Intel 18A Based Test Chip
- Siemens collaborates with TSMC to drive further innovation in semiconductor design and integration
- Aion Silicon Joins Intel Foundry Accelerator Design Services Alliance to Deliver Next-Generation Custom SoCs at Scale
- TSMC Unveils Next-Generation A14 Process at North America Technology Symposium
- BOS Semiconductors to Partner with Intel to Accelerate Automotive AI Innovation
![]() |
E-mail This Article | ![]() |
![]() |
Printer-Friendly Page |