Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS), one of the world's premier technology
licensing companies specializing in high-speed chip interfaces and
Spansion Inc. (Nasdaq:SPSN), the world's largest pure-play provider of
Flash memory solutions, announced today that they have signed a patent
license agreement. This five-year, royalty-based agreement grants
Spansion a license to a broad range of Rambus patents. Rambus
management does not expect revenue generated from this license
agreement to be material. Specific terms of the agreement are
confidential.
"This license agreement with Rambus enables Spansion to expand our
memory solutions for cellular phone applications," said Robert
Melendres, executive vice president and chief legal officer at
Spansion. "Working with the Rambus team to secure access to their
patent portfolio will provide us more design freedom as we develop
next generation Flash memory technology and solutions."
"Rambus has a history of innovation in advanced interface designs,
and some of those innovations are applicable to Flash memory," said
Sharon Holt, senior vice president of Worldwide Sales, Licensing and
Marketing at Rambus. "Our patented inventions add value to the
industry and leaders such as Spansion can benefit from our
innovations, which push the bounds of various technology platforms."
Spansion joins a growing list of semiconductor suppliers and
system manufacturers who have signed patent license agreements for
various products covered by Rambus patents. Other companies include
AMD, Elpida, Fujitsu, Qimonda, Matsushita, NEC, Renesas, and Toshiba.
Since its founding in 1990, Rambus has focused on advancing
electronic system performance through innovations in logic and memory
interfaces, controller architectures, and system design. Such
innovations include the application of micro-threading to a DRAM core,
the elimination of trace length matching with FlexPhase(TM) circuit
technology, and industry-recognized dynamic point-to-point
memory-enhancing technology. These and other innovations result in a
broad portfolio of innovations and patents that enable semiconductor
manufacturers and system designers to achieve ever-increasing levels
of functionality and performance, to lower system costs, to mitigate
risk with silicon-proven designs, and to reduce time to market. For
more information on Rambus' patent portfolio, please visit
www.rambus.com/products/innovationslicensing/.
About Rambus Inc.
Rambus is one of the world's premier technology licensing
companies specializing in the invention and design of high-speed chip
interfaces. Since its founding in 1990, the Company's patented
innovations, breakthrough technologies and renowned integration
expertise have helped industry-leading chip and system companies bring
superior products to market. Rambus' technology and products solve
customers' most complex chip and system-level interface challenges
enabling unprecedented performance in computing, communications and
consumer electronics applications. Rambus licenses both its
world-class patent portfolio as well as its family of leadership and
industry-standard interface products. Headquartered in Los Altos,
California, Rambus has regional offices in North Carolina, India,
Germany, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Additional information is available
at www.rambus.com.
About Spansion
Spansion is a leading Flash memory solutions provider, dedicated
to enabling, storing and protecting digital content in the wireless,
automotive, networking and consumer electronics markets. Spansion,
previously a joint venture of AMD and Fujitsu, is the largest company
in the world dedicated exclusively to designing, developing,
manufacturing, marketing and selling Flash memory solutions. For more
information, visit www.spansion.com.
