ddr Page | of 2 To: fleming@rambus.com, mooring@rambus.com. toprani@rambus.com, gtate@rambus.com, kabealo@rambus.com, roberts@rambus.com Subject: intel, OEMs, and DDR Ce: dmithani@rambus.com FYI. Our partners have discussed the following information under “personal NDA.” Please keep their company names confidential, or else we may not get any more information. DOR seems to be gaining big momentum as an alternative for main memory. | have had several conversations with our infrastructure partners who indicated that OEMs, and in some cases intel, are actively talking about DDR for main memory. ‘Smart Modular (#2 supplier, likely will be #1 by 99) has mentioned that OEMS are rallying behind non-Intel chip set vendors (VIA and others) that are developing DOR chip set. IBM and HP are the most active in this camp, However Compag is said to be right behind them. ‘Smart and HP are proposing a DDR-DIMM (with an on-board PLL) for desktop main memory. IBM is proposing a DDR-DIMM without a PLL. Smart is saying that OEMs are very skeptical about Rambus delivering the solution. Issues with 800MHz timing, power dissipation, cost, and manufacturablity seem to be the dominant factors contributing to the FUD. OEMs have done throughput analysis that showed Direct and DDR have the same effective throughput. However, DDR has lower cost, standard package,... To make matters worse, certain groups within Intel are supposedly talking about DDR for main memory. A couple of days ago, | received a call from TI (clock division) asking about DOR story. TI mentioned that inte! is looking at DDR for main memory. Another clock vendor, IMI, asked me about the same. thing. OEMs have told IMI that they are skeptical about Rambus because Direct has timing issues. Another thing that may be working against us is that all clock vendors are having EMI problems with BX. So the argument is that if 10OMHz is bad, how would 800MHz look like? Whether these issues are real or not, there is definitely massive activity and momentum behind DDR. This is likely to polarize partners against us, Even the partners that are in our camp will start to get nervous and focus ‘on supporting DDR. A good example of this being Kingston actively promoting Rambus, and Smart actively behind DDR. In the connector area, Molex is aggressive and is committing a lot resources on Direct whereas AMP is not 80 aggressive. Clock guys are watching, If not anything, this will definitely effect effect schedules. ‘We might want to consider the following to kill the momentum behind DDR. 1. Statement by Intel affirming their commitment to Direct 2. Direct promotion at OEt IBM-\ irect promotion at OEMs, esp. IBM-VT, and HP. Beane OUTSIDE COUNSEL ONLY ‘¢x0655-001 |er Page 2 ore 3. Publish a document that reaches a wide audience that clearly show Direct is better than DDR, both from throughput and implementation 4, Either hide or address the challenges associated with Direct implementation a. uBGA manufacturing b. timing c. power 4d. heat spreader e. multiple footprints -> multiple designs -> multiple inventories 5. Sign up as many infrastructure partners as we could and demonstrate more momentum behind Direct Regards, Srinivas OUTSIDE COUNSEL ONLY R 200460 ¢x0655-002 |