Rambus Inc, a developer of technology that speeds the data transfer between memory chips and processors, has said that it intends to extend its focus into new markets including communications chips and chips for consumer devices. In a conference call, the Mountain View, California-based company’s CEO Greg Tate outlined the company’s plans for next year. He said that David Moring, previously senior VP, computer and memory group, would become company president. Subodh Toprani has been promoted to senior vice president, and he will lead a newly formed new ventures group, responsible for acquisitions and investments. Toprani was previously vice president and general manager of logic products. Tate himself will focus on strategy, intellectual property and acquisitions, he said.
Talking about the decision to move into new markets, Tate said, We are often thought of as a DRAM company, but we are a chip-to- chip communications company, we move data between chips at a high rate and cost effectively. We apply the technology we have to the memory problem.” He said that the company had been focusing on applying its technology to communications technology in the last year. However, he did not name any customers, saying that the company would be announcing more details early next year.
The decision to investigate other uses for its technology may have been motivated by the bruising year Rambus has had in the memory chip field. With Intel Corp initially choosing Rambus DRAMs as its memory standard for new Intel chipsets, the firm could have justifiably expected to be in clover. However, supply and bug problems dogged the entry of Intel’s 820 chipset for PCs onto the market. It was finally launched in November, months after the original early summer launch date. And many memory vendors and PC OEMs adopted PC133 synchronous DRAMs as an alternative memory technology in the interim. As a result, Rambus’ share price has been on the slide in recent months.
However, the company is still working on refining its memory connection technology. Its roadmap for 2000 includes plans for a doubling of its highest performance DRAM memory chip connection data transfer rate to 1.6 GHz. In addition, the company said it plans to develop technology for quadrupling the current Rambus memory module bandwidth to 6.4Gbps.
