Cirrus Logic licenses Rambus Technology; 500 MHz bandwidth, low-pin-count interface technology to provide new level of price performance.

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 9, 1995--Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ:CRUS) Monday announced that it has licensed technology from Rambus Inc. for use in products that will begin shipping this year.

This technology includes an innovative interface and a new DRAM architecture -- the Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) -- that supports 500-megabyte-per-second data transfer rates from a single device, which is more than 10 times the throughput of conventional DRAMs and from three to five times that of video RAMs (VRAMs).

According to Jon Peddie, president of industry analyst Peddie & Associates, "Cirrus Logic is the world's largest supplier of graphics controllers. For a company of its size and technical capabilities to endorse the Rambus technology demonstrates the importance of high bandwidth capabilities in tomorrow's products."

George Alexy, senior vice president of marketing at Cirrus Logic, said, "We needed a memory technology that would be supported by multiple sources, be cost-effective, and flexible.

"With Rambus, we can build controllers that have up to a gigabyte-per-second bandwidth and still keep pin counts very low, which is key for low-cost controllers. Also, all other alternatives to Rambus DRAMs would have used 4M-bit technology, which is becoming more expensive on a per-bit basis than 16M-bit RDRAMs."

Rambus Technology Overview

Rambus technology is a very-high-speed interface that allows DRAMs and controllers to transfer data at 500 megabytes per second over the Rambus Channel, a narrow, byte-wide data bus. The controller driving the Rambus Channel includes one or more Rambus ASIC Cells (RACs), which support the electrical and logical interface to the RDRAMs.

Rambus DRAMs are designed for low-cost, high-volume manufacturing and use standard CMOS processing, plastic packages, and conventional printed circuit board technology. Sixteen-megabit and 8M-bit RDRAMs will be available from a broad range of suppliers, including GoldStar Electron Co., NEC Corp., OKI Electric Industry Co., and Toshiba Corp.

"Rambus technology, in conjunction with the expertise of Cirrus Logic, will enable the next level of performance to become standard on a broad range of PC platforms," said Geoff Tate, president and chief executive officer of Rambus Inc.

"We selected Rambus technology because of its suitability for high-bandwidth, high-performance applications," Alexy noted. "We were also impressed with the Rambus DRAM suppliers' commitment and support for Rambus technology."

Headquartered in Fremont, Cirrus Logic Inc. is a leading supplier of advanced integrated circuits for the desktop and portable computing, telecommunications, and consumer electronics markets.

The company applies its system-level expertise in analog and digital design to innovate highly integrated, software-rich solutions. Cirrus Logic has developed a broad portfolio of products and technologies for applications spanning multimedia, graphics, communications, mass storage, and data acquisition.

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Note to Editors: Rambus and RDRAM are trademarks of Rambus Inc.

CONTACT: Cirrus Logic, Fremont

              Joe Fowler, 510/226-2239 (Editorial Contact)
              Brent Wientjes, 510/226-2123 (Reader Contact)