Press Release

Rambus, Toshiba and Elpida Announce XDR™ DRAM, the World's Fastest Memory

3.2GHz DRAM offers 8x the bandwidth of today's best-of-class PC memory

Tokyo, Japan  - 07/10/2003   Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq: RMBS), a leading provider of chip-to-chip interface products and services, along with Toshiba and Elpida, today announced XDR™ DRAM. XDR DRAM uses Rambus' XDR memory interface technology, formerly code-named Yellowstone. Running at 3.2GHz, XDR DRAM offers 8x the bandwidth of today's best-in-class PC memory. As Rambus announced earlier this year, Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. have licensed the XDR memory interface for utilization in future broadband applications with "Cell."

The XDR DRAM family has been architected to offer mainstream memory solutions for a broad range of applications. XDR DRAM is expected to initially serve the high-bandwidth needs of consumer, graphics, and networking applications, with eventual applicability for PC main memory, server and mobile systems when these applications require higher levels of bandwidth. XDR DRAM can provide the cost benefits of mainstream memory while still outperforming low-volume specialty DRAMs. XDR DRAM offers significant cost savings by providing the same system bandwidth as alternatives with fewer DRAM components, low-cost 4-layer PCBs, and inexpensive industry-standard packages.

Initially XDR DRAM will be offered at 3.2GHz with a roadmap to 6.4GHz and beyond, enabling memory system bandwidths up to 100GB/s. XDR DRAM will be available in multiple speed bins, device densities, and device widths. With densities ranging from 256Mb to 8Gb, and device widths ranging from x1 to x32, XDR DRAM satisfies the needs of both high-bandwidth and high-capacity systems. XDR memory's novel matrix topology allows point-to-point differential data interconnects to scale to multi-GHz speeds, while the bussed address and command signals allow a scalable range of memory system capacity supporting from one to 36 DRAM devices.

"Rambus is pleased that XDR DRAM is being supported by industry leaders. The XDR family provides a fresh approach to memory system design and will resolve bandwidth bottlenecks, enabling rich feature sets in next-generation broadband systems," said Laura Stark, vice president of the Memory Interface Division at Rambus. "With XDR memory, design engineers can successfully implement high performance systems at low system price points."

The XDR infrastructure, such as DRAM models, controller IO cells, clock generators, data sheets and system design guides, are available today for semiconductor and system design. From chip design to system integration and volume production, Rambus provides comprehensive services, support and a single point of contact for the entire memory system design to guarantee compatibility across multiple DRAM component vendors.

Toshiba and Elpida expect to begin shipping XDR DRAM in 2004, ramping to volume production in 2005. Additional information on XDR DRAM and the memory interface can be found at www.rambus.com/xdr.

About Elpida Memory, Inc.

Elpida Memory, Inc. is a manufacturer of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) with headquarters based in Tokyo, Japan, and sales and marketing operations located in Japan, North America, Europe and Asia. Elpida offers a broad range of leading-edge DRAM products. Elpida is a joint venture company formed by NEC and Hitachi on December 20, 1999. Elpida has been in operation since April 2000. For more information, visit www.elpida.com.

About Toshiba Corporation

Toshiba Corporation is a leader in the development and manufacture of electronic devices and components, information and communication systems, consumer products and power systems. The company's ability to integrate wide-ranging capabilities, from hardware to software and innovative services, assure its position as an innovator in diverse fields and many businesses. In semiconductors, Toshiba continues to build on its world-class position in NAND flash memories, analog devices and discrete devices and to promote its leadership in the fast growing system-on-chip market. Toshiba has approximately 166,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of over US$47 billion.

Elpida Quote:
"Keeping up with ever-increasing bandwidth requirements is a critical element of memory system design and Rambus continues to demonstrate that they have the technical expertise to meet this challenge," said Hidemori Inukai, Chief Marketing Officer for Elpida Memory, Inc. "XDR DRAM has the potential to become a primary solution for many markets, especially high-end consumer and graphics systems."

Toshiba Quote:
"XDR DRAM ushers in a whole new era of advanced memory system design that addresses the needs of the bandwidth-intensive consumer marketplace," said Shozo Saito, Technology Executive of Toshiba Corporation Semiconductor Company. "We are confident that our long-standing partnership with Rambus will continue to equip our customers with leading DRAM products.

Rambus, RDRAM, and the Rambus logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Rambus Inc. Rambus and other parties may have trademark rights in other terms used herein.

This release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements about the adoption rate of XDR DRAM into and suitability for the consumer, graphics, networking, PC main memory, server and mobile markets, as well as the dates of when XDR DRAMs are expected to ship into their respective markets and ramp into volume production. Additional forward-looking statements include the ability of XDR DRAM to provide cost benefits while still outperforming low-volume specialty DRAMs. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Those risks include the possibility of inadequate shipments of Rambus XDR memory devices and controllers for the specified markets, the market response to these products, the continued deterioration in the DRAM market, any delay in the development of Rambus-based products by licensees, any delay in the development and shipment of new Rambus products, any delay in the development and shipment of products compatible with Rambus products, a strong response of the market to competing technology, a failure to sign new contracts or maintain existing contracts for XDR memory, adverse litigation decisions and other factors that are described in our SEC filings including our 10-K and 10-Qs.

À propos de Rambus Inc.

Contacts

Linda Ashmore
Relations publiques de Rambus
+1 650-947-5411
lashmore@rambus.com