Samsung settles Rambus case for $979m

Samsung has settled its long-running patent dispute with chip designer Rambus for US$900 million ($979 million).

Under the terms of the deal, announced today, Samsung will invest US$200 million in Rambus stock, make an interim payment of US$200 million and pay US$25 million a quarter for the next five years.

In return Rambus is dropping its legal action against Samsung and licence the company to use some of its DRAM designs.

"We have a tremendous opportunity to renew a partnership which has created solutions that have benefited consumers worldwide," said Harold Hughes, president of Rambus.

"Bringing together Samsung's market and technology leadership with our innovations for high-performance and high-efficiency memory architectures will make possible an exciting new generation of mobile, computing and consumer electronics products."

The two companies also signed a memorandum of understanding for Samsung to licence Rambus’ chip designs for new graphics and mobile memory and may also collaborate on server and high-speed NAND Flash memories in the future.

The settlement leaves Rambus free to concentrate on its current patent disputes with Micron Technology and Hynix Semiconductor, the former of which is giving the company problems.