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Rambus Binary Pixel brings single-shot HDR photos to phone cameras
Most high dynamic range photography 'cheats' by merging multiple exposures into a composite image, which can lead to blurry shots. While HDR camera technology is catching up and will even let us record HDR video on our smartphones, Rambus believes its new Binary Pixel technology can achieve the effect with less waste. Its new imaging chip tries to replicate the human eye's range through setting light thresholds and oversampling the scene in both space and time. The results are more natural shadows and highlights down to the pixel level, with processing processing fast enough for video. The overall image reportedly suffers from less noise as well. Companies will have to talk to Rambus to implement Binary Pixel, although it's a considered a drop-in technology that should talk to existing processors and camera sensors, whether it's for smartphones or point-and-shoot cameras. Rambus may just want to hurry if it hopes to get noticed -- it's joining an increasingly crowded field.
Rambus planning appeal after losing ITC patent case against LSI and STMicroelectronics
Rambus has lost the ITC dispute it filed with most of the electronics industry back in the day. Only LSI and STMicroelectronics remained as respondents after the company negotiated settlements with Freescale, Broadcom, MediaTek and NVIDIA. In its decision, the court found that some of the patents were unenforceable, while others ceased to be under the "clean hands" doctrine because Rambus had allegedly destroyed relevant documents. Company general counsel, Thomas Lavelle, has said in a statement that its next move might be to make an appeal to the Federal Circuit -- where it's hoping for better luck.
NVIDIA and Rambus settle, sign patent deal, kiss and make up
Some of you thought it would never happen. You thought that these two mortal enemies would spend the rest of their multinational corporate lives alternately at each other throats and eyeing the other with suspicion from across the boardroom. After dropping some claims and winning others, Rambus has signed an agreement with NVIDIA that puts to rest their remaining legal disputes. The deal will allow NVIDIA to use patented Rambus tech in its products for the next five years, without fear of legal action -- though, neither side will say how much that privilege cost. Now that the battle between the two, which began way back in 2008, has finally come to a close we can all finally get back to the very important business of forgetting who or what Rambus is.
US government rules three Barth patents invalid, sends Rambus scrambling
Suing's easy. It's the "winning" that trips folks up. Such is the case with Rambus, who has been relying oh-so-heavily on the so-called trio of Barth patents to actively pursue just about every technology company on the planet. For those unaware, Rambus has christened itself as a "technology licensing company," but with the last of three patents used to win infringement suits against NVIDIA and HP being declared invalid, it's probably scrambling for new tactics. According to a Reuters report, an appeals board at the US Patent and Trademark Office declared the patent invalid a few days back, with the previous two being knocked back in September. A couple of months back, Rambus' stock lost 60 percent of its value after a court decision led to the loss of a $4 billion antitrust lawsuit against Micron and Hynix, and we're guessing things won't be any happier when the markets open back up on Monday. The company's next move? "We're evaluating our options," said spokeswoman Linda Ashmore.
Rambus, Broadcom sign licensing deal, agree to share toys
It never hurts to stop arguing, hug it out and agree on a patent licensing deal. Today, Rambus -- which filed a complaint against Broadcom with the International Trade Commission in 2010 -- signed a licensing deal that resolved those claims. In the statement, Rambus said it will license its patent for integrated circuits used in chips made by Broadcom. The company didn't disclose any financial details related to the deal or which technology would be part of the agreement. However, given that Broadcom's known for its wireless networking chips often found in WiFi, Bluetooth and cellular-capable devices, it seems likely to be in the wireless realm. In other news, Rambus and Broadcom have added each other as Xbox Live friends and gotten to level 36 in Modern Warfare 3 co-op gameplay.
Rambus files ITC complaint against just about everyone, wants to stop sale of just about everything
Rambus, which modestly describes itself as "one of the world's premier technology licensing companies," has meekly asked the International Trade Commission to block import and sale of an amazing array of products from companies including Broadcom, Freescale, LSI, MediaTek, NVIDIA, and STMicroelectronics -- the latter of which was sued by Caltech only yesterday. But wait, there's more! Rambus also indicates that other "companies whose products incorporate the accused semiconductor products" have also been named, selling things like "personal computers, workstations, servers, routers, mobile phones and other handheld devices, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, motherboards, plug-in cards, hard drives and modems." That should just about cover 95% of what's available at your local electronics store, and certainly puts our holiday wish lists in legal limbo.This is a follow-up to earlier disputes involving the company, particularly with NVIDIA, which will continue via patent infringement lawsuits filed in US District Court against those corporate entities mentioned above. Beyond that, Rambus is hoping that the ITC stops import and sale of any and all infringing products post-haste. That seems awfully drastic, but for its part Rambus indicates it has been trying with all its might to negotiate licenses with these supposedly dirty dealers and that it was told "the only way they would get serious is if we sued them." So, place your bets because here we go.[Thanks, Antonio]
Rambus victorious in patent fight with NVIDIA, can expect neat wad of cash for its troubles
So what if Rambus doesn't really produce anything tangible these days? We're hearing the "innovation" business is going really well for the company that recently celebrated its 1,000th patent, and now there's a nice big windfall in its near future as well. The US International Trade Commission has handed down a ruling agreeing with a previous judgment that NVIDIA infringed on three Rambus patents in the design of its memory controllers, with the ultimate outcome being a ban on importing such infringing goods into the country. Of course, that's the one thing we're sure won't be happening, but NVIDIA will now have to sign up for a license to Rambus' precious IP portfolio, which might be a tad bit costly given that GeForce, Quadro, nForce, Tesla and Tegra chips are named as being in violation -- aside from Ion, that's pretty much NVIDIA's whole hardware business.[Thanks, Marc]Update: NVIDIA, unsurprisingly, has said it will appeal the ruling. [Thanks, Xero2]
Rambus and NVIDIA patent dispute gets a little closer to a resolution
We're just a few tech-related legal cases away from changing our name to Enpatent, and the latest to push us that little bit closer is yet another ruling in the long and drawn-out battle between Rambus and NVIDIA. If you need a refresher, way back in 2008 Rambus accused NVIDIA of illicitly using five of its patents, and most recently a judge ruled that only three of those five had been violated. Now two more patents have fallen off the legal wagon, with the US Patent and Trademark Office indicating that only one of the three remaining was a true violation, a second was rejected, and a third got a mixed ruling. So, from a start of five Rambus is down to basically one and a half, but NVIDIA is saying it isn't done yet, planning yet another appeal. Maybe we should call ourselves Enappeal instead...
Court case shocker: Judge rules in favor of Rambus, not NVIDIA... sort of
Rambus, a company that has been in a long, drawn out legal battle with NVIDIA over five patents for what seems like ages now, had some good news delivered to it late last week. A judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission issued a preliminary determination finding that NVIDIA had indeed violated three of the five patents -- ruling that the other two had not been violated. Now, NVIDIA says that the whole patent mystery continues to be a subject ripe for reexamination by the Patent and Trademark Office -- which has consistently found the claims of infringement to be invalid. NVIDIA says it will take the claims to a full commission for a final decision. You'll probably remember that these five patent infringement claims were part of a much larger suit that Rambus filed against NVIDIA -- some of which were dropped earlier this month. Will it never end?
Rambus and Kingston build a threaded module prototype, claim 50 percent better memory throughput
How do you thread memory tasks and are women naturally better at it than men? Such were the questions that roamed our limitless minds as we sought to understand what exactly Rambus and Kingston had achieved. Based on standard DDR3 chips, the new threading tech essentially creates multiple independent channels per memory module, allowing multicore processors to utilize the available RAM more efficiently. That results, says Rambus, in systems that offer 50 percent higher throughput that the standard stuff and suckle 20 percent less power due to the compartmentalization of each module. Neat. More details are promised at the Intel Developer Conference, which kicks off tomorrow in San Fran.[Via SlashGear]
Rambus drops patent suit against NVIDIA Update: only part of it
So much for all those Rambus / NVIDIA fireworks we know you were hoping for -- the two companies just announced that the patent infringement proceedings begun last year have come to a close and the International Trade Commission has been asked to drop its investigation. According to the statement, "Rambus has conceded that NVIDIA products do not infringe on its four patents before the ITC." That's that -- guess we'll just have to get our kill-crazy destruction kicks elsewhere.Update: Sigh -- Rambus has told MarketWatch it disagrees with NVIDIA's release, and that it's still litigating five more patents before the ITC. Round and round we go.
Rambus introduces 4.3Gbps mobile memory
It's not all just lawsuits and overinflated posturing for Rambus -- the prickly memory firm will later today demo what its calling the Mobile Memory Initiative, a 4.3Gbps phone-oriented variant of the XDR RAM used in the PS3 that requires just 100mV of power. That means companies can either build super-powerful phones that take advantage of a complete MMI system's estimated 17GBps throughput, or build cheaper devices that offer performance equivalent to today's memory with fewer MMI parts. Rambus won't say who it's working with to bring out MMI, but we're going to have to wait a bit before we all score cheap HD videophones -- the first products aren't scheduled to hit until early 2010.[Via Electronista]
Rambus takes aim at NVIDIA over alleged patent infringement, again
While there still doesn't seem to have been any developments in the lawsuit Rambus filed against NVIDIA earlier this year, that doesn't seem to be stopping the company from opening up another front against its would-be arch rival, and it's now taken its case to the International Trade Commission. As before, Rambus is alleging that NVIDIA and its partner companies are infringing on a whole slew of its memory-related patents, and it's asking for a ban on all imports and sales of NVIDIA products that include DDR, DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR, GDDR, GDDR2, and GDDR3 memory controllers -- or anything with an NVIDIA logo on it, basically. For its part, NVIDIA doesn't seem to be commenting on the matter just yet, but Rambus said in a statement that it believes the action was "necessary given NVIDIA's continued willful infringement of our patents." Look for the ITC to make a decision on whether to start an investigation into the matter or not within the next 30 days, and you can keep tabs on any future Rambus litigation on the Litigation Update section of its website which, yes, actually exists.Read - Rambus Press Release, "Rambus Files Complaint Against International Trade Commission"Read - Rambus Litigation Update[Via The Inquirer]
Rambus still around, sues NVIDIA for patent infringement
Hey, any of you remember Rambus? That company that wanted to force RDRAM onto the market and basically sued everyone until it flamed out into oblivion in the early 2000s? Yeah, it's still around, has a massively stupid slogan, and it's suing NVIDIA for -- what else? -- patent infringement, claiming that NVIDIA products with SDRAM, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR, and GDDR3 memory controllers violate some 17 different patents. Rambus says it's tried for six years to negotiate licensing terms with capital-N, but that it has "no other recourse than litigation" to get things sorted out. Valid or not, that's not good news for NVIDIA, whose stock price is struggling due to market pricing pressure and the news that perhaps all its 8400M and 8600M chips are faulty and will require repair or replacement at the cost of at least $250M. We'll see how this one goes -- now's a good a time as any to open that can of whoop-ass, guys.Read - Rambus sues NVIDIARead - Incredibly douchebaggy "Rambus Trademark Guidelines" page we're linking just because it's so pretentiously awful
