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Emerging Solutions

Rambus, GigaDevice, THG Ventures Form Reliance Memory to Develop RRAM

Enterprise to focus on memory for embedded and IoT devices 

SUNNYVALE, California and Beijing, China – May 04, 2018 – Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS) today announced a joint venture in China, Reliance Memory, has been formed to commercialize Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) technology, with partner GigaDevice, a leading provider in China of non-volatile memory solutions and 32-bit microcontrollers, along with strategic investment partners THG Ventures, West Summit Capital, Walden International and Zhisland Capital. The new venture will bring next-generation memory technology to market for use in embedded devices.

“Rambus has invested in RRAM technology for several years, and this joint venture is a natural way of continuing to develop this technology for the embedded market,” said Dr. Ron Black, CEO of Rambus. “By working together, Rambus and GigaDevice will enable this joint venture to provide innovative memory solutions for the next wave of state-of-the-art mobile devices.”

RRAM is a form of non-volatile storage that works by changing the resistance of unique solid dielectric material. RRAM devices, also known as memristors, change resistance when different voltages are applied.  RRAM offers lower power than traditional embedded non-volatile storage, which makes it ideal for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, where low power is critical.

“We pride ourselves on providing the widest range of non-volatile memory solutions available for our customers,” said Yiming Zhu, CEO, GigaDevice. “This strategic investment is aimed at delivering emerging memory solutions for our family of GD32 microcontrollers and other future embedded products in applications such as the Internet of Things.”

“We are pleased to be the lead investor in forming this joint venture to explore the new era of memory technologies with Rambus and GigaDevice,” said Jun Xue, founding partner of THG Ventures. “Our strong track record in technology investments provides us with great confidence that new opportunities continue to develop with exciting technologies for the global market.”

Rambus to Develop Hybrid Memory System Architectures for Future Data Centers

Joins high-performance open standards organizations to drive innovation in the data center

SUNNYVALE, California and LAS VEGAS – March 19, 2018 – Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS) today announced a collaboration with IBM to research hybrid memory systems. Targeting one of the industry’s key performance challenges, Rambus Labs and IBM aim to optimize the use of DRAM and emerging memories to create a high-capacity memory subsystem that delivers comparable performance to DRAM alone. As part of the collaboration, Rambus will develop a flexible prototype hybrid memory platform using the OpenCAPI interface to demonstrate performance of multiple memory types in real-world server applications.

“The exploding volume of data and rapidly evolving workloads for Big Data applications are placing tremendous pressure on data center memory systems for increased performance and capacity,” said Laura Stark, senior vice president and general manager of the Emerging Solutions Division at Rambus. “This project with IBM demonstrates our ongoing collaboration with the industry to accelerate the development and adoption of advanced memory solutions.”

Rambus will leverage IBM’s POWER9 processor and its OpenCAPI high performance interface to build a Hybrid Memory and development subsystem prototype.  To move forward on this project, Rambus announced it has joined the OpenCAPI Consortium, an open development community based on Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface technology, and OpenPOWER Foundation, an open development community based on the IBM Power Architecture.

“IBM is excited to collaborate with Rambus regarding advanced memory technologies on the OpenCAPI interface of POWER9 systems,” said Steve Fields, IBM fellow and chief engineer of Power Systems. “IBM believes in transforming the architecture of server memory to allow open innovation and to fully exploit the diversity of memory technologies that will emerge in the coming years.  This project leverages the new architecture to combine the best attributes of multiple types of media to achieve new levels of system cost/performance for memory-intensive cloud deployments and AI applications.”

Having high-capacity and high-density memory near the processor improves overall system performance and increases the ability to more fully utilize CPU resources.  Rambus and IBM’s flexible and innovative hybrid memory system architectures will combine standard DRAM using other technologies such as Flash, enhanced Flash, Phase Change Memory (PCM), Resistive RAM (ReRAM) and Spin Torque Transfer Magnetic RAM (STT-MRAM) to create high capacity memories at lower cost per bit, with performance levels comparable to that of DRAM.

Join Rambus at IBM Think 2018
At IBM Think 2018, Kenneth Wright, Senior Director in Rambus labs, will present the early success in simulation of Hybrid Memory and outline the future direction of a Collaborative Hybrid Memory Research Platform with goals of bringing Hybrid Memory into the Data Center.  Come hear Rambus speak on March 19, 2018, within the OpenPOWER Summit track at the MGM Grand Las Vegas from 2:50 p.m. – 3:20 p.m. in Room 308.

For more information on Rambus Hybrid Memory research, please visit rambus.com/hybrid-memory.

Imaging Innovator Gigajot Licenses Binary Pixel Technology from Rambus

Solution enables low-light photography and videography, scientific and medical imaging, automotive sensing, AR/VR and 3D

SUNNYVALE, CA and LEBANON, NH – Dec. 5, 2017 – Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS) today announced Dartmouth College-based startup Gigajot Technology has licensed Rambus Binary Pixel technology and patents for use in Gigajot’s next-generation image capture solutions. Gigajot’s Quanta Image Sensor (QIS) is a major paradigm shift in solid-state imaging which enables high-speed counting of single photons of light at gigapixel resolution. The new features enabled by QIS and Binary Pixel Technologies can benefit imaging applications such as scientific, automotive, security, defense, encryption, AR/VR, 3D and consumer photography, among others.

Based on the QIS technology developed by the Dartmouth-based research group of Dr. Eric Fossum, inventor of the “camera on a chip” found in billions of smartphones today, Gigajot’s third-generation solid-state imaging technology is sensitive enough to detect a single photon of light at room temperature and enables extremely high pixel densities. Rambus has supported the early work at Dartmouth on the technology. The single photon detection technology with its high sensitivity unlocks new capabilities in low-light photography and videography, scientific and medical imaging, automotive sensing, AR/VR and 3D, without sacrificing resolution or frame rate.

“Traditionally, it has been difficult to achieve acceptable signal-to-noise ratio in low-light situations for quality images,” said Dr. Saleh Masoodian, CEO, Gigajot. “Combining the Rambus Binary Pixel technology with Gigajot’s QIS devices enables development of highly sensitive imaging technology via mainstream commercial CMOS fabrication processes for not only consumer devices such as smartphones, tablets and cameras, but also for more high-end commercial pursuits such as scientific, medical, security and surveillance sensors and cameras.”

Rambus Binary Pixel technology combines a breakthrough imager and processor architecture to enable professional quality images and video from small form factor imagers for compact solutions. The technology mimics the brilliance of human visual processing by sensing photons using discrete thresholds to avoid pixel saturation and enable better light sensitivity. Binary Pixel also employs special oversampling methods, which subdivide pixels, exposure and digitization to capture more data and extend the dynamic range of the imager.

“Rambus Binary Pixel technology enables improved performance for small, compact image sensors, allowing unprecedented image quality for consumer devices,” said Laura Stark, SVP and general manager, Emerging Solutions of Rambus. “Combining the Gigajot and Rambus cutting-edge imaging technologies will dramatically improve the image capture experience for the next generation of consumers and professionals.”

For more information on Rambus Emerging Solutions Division, visit https://www.rambus.com/emerging-solutions/.

Follow Rambus:
Company website: rambus.com
Rambus blog: rambus.com/blog
Twitter: @rambusinc
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About Rambus Emerging Solutions Division

Inspired by the innovative thinking at the heart of Rambus Labs, the Emerging Solutions division at Rambus works to translate extraordinary theory into everyday practice, imagining exciting new ways to interpret and reimagine the world of data around us.

About Rambus Inc.
Dedicated to making data faster and safer, Rambus creates innovative hardware, software and services that drive technology advancements from the data center to the mobile edge. Our architecture licenses, IP cores, chips, software, and services span memory and interfaces, security, and emerging technologies to positively impact the modern world. We collaborate with the industry, partnering with leading chip and system designers, foundries, and service providers. Integrated into tens of billions of devices and systems, our products power and secure diverse applications, including Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT) security, mobile payments, and smart ticketing. For more information, visit rambus.com.

About Gigajot Technology LLC
Gigajot is developing the next generation of image sensors where single photon counting is used to unlock new image capture capabilities for consumers and professionals not possible with today’s devices. The company was founded in 2017 by CEO Dr. Saleh Masoodian, CTO Dr. Jiaju Ma and Dr. Eric Fossum. At Gigajot, every photon counts. For more information, visit http://www.gigajot.tech.

Rambus Expands Cryogenic Memory Collaboration with Microsoft

Companies begin to develop prototype systems that optimize memory performance

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – April 17, 2017 – Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS) today announced an expanded collaboration with Microsoft researchers to develop prototype systems that optimize memory performance in cryogenic temperatures. Following the initial collaboration announced in December 2015, this new agreement extends joint efforts to enhance memory capabilities, reduce energy consumption and improve overall system performance.

The technologies being developed by the companies will improve energy efficiency for DRAM and logic operation at cryogenic temperatures, defined by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology as below −180 °C or −292.00 °F or 93.15 K and ideal for high-performance super computers and quantum computers. Additionally, it will enable high-speed SerDes links to operate efficiently in cryogenic and superconducting domains and allow new memory systems to function at these temperatures.

“With the increasing challenges in conventional approaches to improving memory capacity and power efficiency, our early research indicates that a significant change in the operating temperature of DRAM using cryogenic techniques may become essential in future memory systems,” said Dr. Gary Bronner, vice president of Rambus Labs. “Our strategic partnership with Microsoft has enabled us to identify new architectural models as we strive to develop systems utilizing cryogenic memory. The expansion of this collaboration will lead to new applications in high-performance super computers (HPC) and quantum computers.”

“We’re excited to continue working with Rambus and broaden our partnership to further develop technologies for memory optimization in cryogenic temperatures,” said Doug Carmean, partner architect within Microsoft’s research organization. “Rambus’ expertise in memory systems has helped us identify new memory architectures to meet our future requirements.”

Rambus has a long history of researching and exploring emerging platforms, consistently developing meaningful technologies with broad applicability.

For more information, visit: https://www.rambus.com/emerging-solutions/cryogenic-memory.

Follow Rambus:
Company website: rambus.com
Rambus blog: rambus.com/blog
Twitter: @rambusinc
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/rambus
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RambusInc

About Emerging Solutions Division

Inspired by the innovative thinking at the heart of Rambus Labs, the Emerging Solutions division at Rambus works to translate extraordinary theory into everyday practice, imagining exciting new ways to interpret and reimagine the world of data around us. 

About Rambus Inc.

Rambus creates innovative hardware and software technologies, driving advancements from the data center to the mobile edge. Our chips, customizable IP cores, architecture licenses, tools, software, services, training and innovations improve the competitive advantage of our customers. We collaborate with the industry, partnering with leading ASIC and SoC designers, foundries, IP developers, EDA companies and validation labs. Our products are integrated into tens of billions of devices and systems, powering and securing diverse applications, including Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, consumer and media platforms. At Rambus, we are makers of better. For more information, visit rambus.com.

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Press contact:

Agnes Toan
Corporate Communications
(408) 462-8905
[email protected]

Rambus Advances its Lensless Smart Sensors with New Thermal Sensing Capabilities

Tiny, cost-effective sensing technology focuses on growing IoT target markets

SUNNYVALE, Calif., and BARCELONA, Spain – February 22, 2016 –  Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS) today announced that it has furthered its innovative lensless smart sensor (LSS) technology to demonstrate thermal sensing capabilities. By extending the award-winning LSS technology to include thermal sensing capabilities, Rambus is broadening the applicability of the technology, enabling new and enhanced functionality for many Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Target applications that can benefit from the small size and affordability of thermal and visible LSS technology include automotive passenger detection, virtual and augmented reality eye tracking, and smart home presence detection.

“LSS can enable a future where IoT technology is infused into many aspects of modern life, from smart cities and transportation to medical equipment and manufacturing,” said Dr. Gary Bronner, vice president of Rambus Labs. “With the addition of these new capabilities, LSS can replace traditional thermal lenses with optical gratings that are significantly less expensive, making LSS ideal for cost-sensitive IoT applications.”

First unveiled in 2014, the Rambus LSS technology has brought a fundamentally new approach to imaging that shifts the function of traditional optics to computation and eliminates the need for expensive lenses by replacing them with tiny inexpensive diffractive gratings. The gratings, combined with optimized algorithms and off-the-shelf thermal or visible sensors, perform a wide range of functions, such as gesture recognition, eye tracking, object identification and depth sensing. Over the past year, Rambus’ Partners-in-Open-Development (POD) program has allowed for a handful of select design and technology companies to implement and accelerate the development of LSS for new use cases.

To learn more about the Lensless Smart Sensor technology, visit rambus.com/lss.

Follow Rambus:
Company website: rambus.com
Rambus blog: rambusblog.com
Twitter: @rambusinc
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/rambus
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RambusInc

About Rambus Inc.
Rambus creates cutting-edge semiconductor and IP products, spanning memory and interfaces to security, smart sensors and lighting. Our chips, customizable IP cores, architecture licenses, tools, services, training and innovations improve the competitive advantage of our customers. We collaborate with the industry, partnering with leading ASIC and SoC designers, foundries, IP developers, EDA companies and validation labs. Our products are integrated into tens of billions of devices and systems, powering and securing diverse applications, including Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, consumer and media platforms. At Rambus, we are makers of better. For more information, visit rambus.com.

Rambus Advances its Smart Data Acceleration Research Program by Partnering with Los Alamos National Laboratory

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – November 17, 2015 – Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS) today announced that it has partnered with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for evaluating elements of its Smart Data Acceleration (SDA) Research Program. The SDA platform has been deployed at LANL to improve the performance of in-memory databases, graph analytics and other Big Data applications.

“With the advent of new tiers of the memory hierarchy coupled with high-speed modern networks that are being made available to the HPC community, independent scaling of memory resources in different tiers may be possible, which will help economically match the needs of future applications and workflows of extreme high-end HPC,” said Gary Grider, leader of the High Performance Computing Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Our initial tests of the Rambus SDA platform show that its performance is well-matched to HPC interconnects, and given the ability to process information close to memory, it can enable the reduction of data movement through efficient workflows. The SDA Research platform allows for large scale simulation by combining independently scalable, high-performance, high-durability, large capacity and processing near memory.”

Addressing major issues facing servers and data centers in the age of Big Data, the SDA Research Program targets significant improvements in the acceleration and offload of computation as the industry explores new paradigms such as near data processing. In addition to compute offload and acceleration with flexible processing engines to enhance system performance, key focus areas include minimizing data movement and leveraging the improved bandwidth, and reducing latency of DRAM and other memory technologies.

“LANL is an ideal partner for our SDA Research Program as we collaborate with experts to validate our approach and overall direction,” said Laura Stark, senior vice president and general manager of the Emerging Solutions division at Rambus. “Our goal is to provide significant improvements in the performance of data-intensive applications through optimization of both software and hardware for compute acceleration and offload.”

The Rambus SDA Research Program provides a platform to investigate near data processing system architectures that include software, firmware, FPGAs and large amounts of memory. The platform can be used to test new methods to optimize and accelerate analytics for large data sets, including in-memory data bases, financial services, ad serving, real-time risk analytics, imaging, transcoding and genome mapping among other applications.

More details about the Rambus SDA Research program can be found at rambus.com/sda.

Follow Rambus

Company website: rambus.com
Rambus blog: rambusblog.com
Twitter: @rambusinc
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/rambus
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RambusInc

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About Emerging Solutions Division

Inspired by the innovative thinking at the heart of Rambus Labs, the Emerging Solutions division at Rambus works to translate extraordinary theory into everyday practice, imagining exciting new ways to interpret and reimagine the world of data around us.

About Rambus Inc.

Rambus creates cutting-edge semiconductor and IP products, spanning memory and interfaces to security, smart sensors and lighting. Our chips, customizable IP cores, architecture licenses, tools, services, training and innovations improve the competitive advantage of our customers. We collaborate with the industry, partnering with leading ASIC and SoC designers, foundries, IP developers, EDA companies and validation labs. Our products are integrated into tens of billions of devices and systems, powering and securing diverse applications, including Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, consumer and media platforms. At Rambus, we are makers of better. For more information, visit rambus.com.

 

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