Rambus, the DRAM interface IP supplier, is looking for customers prepared to take a total package of patents as well as product licences backed by engineering services.

The firm may also be branching out into flash memory interfaces.

“Patent licensing on its own is not a long-term sustainable business model, we want to add value to our customers,” Sharon Holt, senior vice-president for worldwide sales, licensing and marketing, told Electronics Weekly.

Rambus has been seen as a firm which licenses products to DRAM manufacturers. Now it sees system companies, which want to use its interface technologies such as XDR, Advanced Backplane, FlexIO and RDRAM, as potential customers.

On the DRAM side, Rambus has licensed Infineon Technologies, Elpida and Toshiba. Other DRAM manufacturers such as Micron, Hynix, Nanya, ProMos, Powerchip and Winbond have not taken licences.

On the interface side, Rambus has licensed XDR to Samsung, Toshiba and Elpida. Other technology licensees include AMD and Fujitsu.

Holt indicated that start-ups wanting to use Rambus technology could get special terms. “Every deal is different,” she said. That includes the balance between a fee-centric deal and a royalty-centric deal.

For these technology product licences, the licensee gets a GDS-II level design plus engineering services, including help with things like signal integrity, packaging and board design. They also get a patent licence for the underlying technology.

Although Rambus still sees computing, with its graphics interfaces, as a technology driver, it is increasingly targeting consumer electronics, for instance with the interfaces in the Cell processor, and it wants to expand its business in mobile phones.

Asked if that meant Rambus is working on flash memory interfaces, Holt replied: “We have had some work going on in the flash space.” Asked if Rambus would shortly be announcing a flash interface product, Holt replied: “No comment.”

Rambus