Los Altos (CA) – Rambus said that it has purchased “a number of patents” known as “SipFlow” from Inapac Technology, which will allow the company to extend its reach into the mobile memory market. The move should result in high-performance memory specifically developed for mobile devices such as cellphones.
Rambus said that the acquired patents are “key enablers for achieving high manufacturing yields in System-in-Package (SiP) implementations.” SiP consists of a number of stacked integrated circuits (IC) – such as a media processor, DRAM, and Flash memory device – enclosed in a single package or module. SiPs are usually used to reduce the space requirements of multiple chips in compact computing and consumer electronics devices.
Inapac claims that SiPFlow has achieved reliability rates of less than 100 defective parts per million (DPPM) in devices containing a DRAM and media processor. According to Rambus, products such as the the Motorola RAZR V3i and the Sony Ericsson C902 mobile phones have used Inapac’s technologies through separate technology license agreements.
Rambus indicated that it will offer the technology as part of its Mobile Memory Initiative, which aims to provide “high-performance, low-power memory solutions for smartphones, netbooks, portable gaming, and portable multimedia products.” The company claims that its memory technology is good for bandwidth of up to 17 GB/s from a single mobile DRAM device.
