XeSender: geated198.147.244 ‘Thu, 15 Aug 1996 01 5 -0700 champel, barth. adiepenb, droberts From: gtate@jupiter (Geoff Tace) Subject: intel strategy and strategy on r-2 deals with dram companies Ce: grace he $a bunch of thoughts prompted by recent events. dave - 4 assume you're going to convene us to discuss strategy. calendar is up to date and pretty open. first sone quescions synclink - do we all agree the spec is pretty much puff? 200mnz sdram = do we know that the proposal is clocking on both edges of a 100mhz clock? (and where did we get this froa) = if so, what is our technical assessment of the feasability of achieving this, timefrane; risk, compatibility with existing sdram, etc. = also, if 200mhz sdram is so easy why wasn't this a) proposed by dram guys back before intel made the initial let's-ge-rambus decision and b) considered by intel at that tine. = wouldn't a double-edge-clocked sdram violate our issued patent claim? = how Will a 200mnz sdram get the bandwidth out of che core: x16? x32? = +4£* 200mhz sdrans magically existed, would they solve all of incel's problems for the leng tera? which of the rambus Licensees is pushing alternatives at intel? = my guess ie samsung, hyundai and possibly nec = then why are they doing this and who? 1g it a corporate decision? is it ‘the sdram group at that company trying to compete with che rambus group? is their concecn our royalty or our "control"? my gut-level inclinations on an action plan ‘send intel a rambus assessment of synclink at a high-level auch as craig did pointing out the absence of data on anything that is really hard and the rate of progress in almost a year being next to nothing send intel a rambus assessment on 200ahz sdram raising the potential problems we see with feasebility, risk and compatability; ‘AND’ point out that we-have issued patents that this proposal could very well infringe 3. we need to have a heart-tovheart with the powers-that-be at intel. what they want is super-high-bandwidth memory with a long runway and low coat. this is not going to be easy. there are no magic bullets in our opinion, just tradeoffs. if they think there is a magic duller they should go ‘check it out and jump on it and we'll go back to our non-main-nemory business. if they think we are the horse with the best chances then they ‘need to a) finalize the deal b). tell the dram partners and ¢) quit waffling. we are prepared to make hard tradeoffs, jump through hoops, do whatever we can reasonably achieve but only if we are in this together with intel 9300000531 igh Confidential lrormaton ‘Subject Protective Order ‘OUTSIDE COUNSEL ONLY ‘¢x0897-001 |4. ave 5. dram geott > we are really running out of runvay before the dram partner meetings. should we propose to intel that we scrub these meetings unless a) we have an exec meeting asap and b) we get incel's CONFIRMATION Chat at the partner meetings they are gaing co give a strong message to why they need GB/second bandwidth and why they believe r-2 is, the right horge and that they are say 80 committed wich final commitment by xmas. and that they want dram companies Co sign up and start doing r-2 NOW and that laggards will be Lose: companies = i think { should fax nec, coshiba, oki today reminding them the Contracts need to be signed by €/30 and we can meet With them next week AE there are any final issu = regarding hyundai/sansung 1 think we need to give chem a clear message chat at this time there are only two types of dram companies: those that are going to work with rambus and help make rambus successful, (although this doesn't mean they can't do competitive stuff ~ but chey aust do engineering and marketing of rambus); and there are those that are working against rambus. we should tell hyundai/samsung chat they have vary favorable agreements with us on r-1 and we are willing to extend the terms to r-2 but ONLY if they a) meet their existing obligations te market r-1 parts (press announcement by hyundai; build and sell 16M and help at intel systems by samsung); and b) they must sign their r-2 agreements with us by X date (8/30? 9/15? 9/30?) as our other rambus partners have or they will then be considered & 2nd wave partner with less favorable time-co-market and §/3 terms. Geott taco Tel (415) 903-3807; Fax (415) 965-1528 Rambus Inc. 2465 Latham, Mountain View, California USA 94040 ‘*RAMBOS CONETDENTIAL INFORMATION MAY BE CONTAINED IN THIS EMAIL** ‘930D0C00532 : igh Conde! etormation ‘Subject io Proactive Order ‘OUTSIDE COUNSEL ONLY ‘¢x0897-002 |