ST signs agreement with Rambus to expand licenses

Date: 17/06/2013
STMicroelectronics said it has signed a comprehensive agreement with Rambus to expand existing licenses between the two Companies, settles all outstanding claims, and commits both organizations to explore additional opportunities for collaboration.

Rambus gains access to ST’s Fully-Depleted Silicon On Insulator (FD-SOI) process-technology design environment so that it can design its future memory and interface solutions for FDSOI based chips.

ST said it has secured license terms from the Cryptography Research, Inc. (CRI) division of Rambus to make it possible for ST to deploy Differential Power Analysis (DPA) countermeasures and CryptoFirewall core security technology across a wider range of products. DPA is a form of attack that involves monitoring the fluctuating electrical power consumption of a target device and then using statistical methods to derive cryptographic keys and other secrets. DPA countermeasures are used to protect secret cryptographic keys, including those used to secure transactions for banking, identity, pay television, video gaming, smartphones, government, and other applications, explains ST.

CryptoFirewall cores are complete hardware-based security blocks designed by CRI to protect against a wide range of attacks and tampering techniques.

Now ST to further strengthen the security robustness of its leading-edge set-top box ICs and gateways for multimedia services including PayTV.

“This agreement with Rambus is an exceptional win-win-win for both parties, as they can now share and use more broadly important technologies that have great value to us, the industry and our customers,” said Gian Luca Bertino, Executive Vice President Digital Convergence Group, STMicroelectronics. “While Rambus can now use our revolutionary FD-SOI process technology in its designs, ST intends to further enhance the security of our outstanding set-top box ICs and to deploy DPA countermeasures across the whole range of our relevant product portfolio.”

“ST has implemented DPA countermeasure technology for years in its secure microcontrollers and has been a leader in data security”, said Paul Kocher, President and Chief Scientist at the Cryptography Research division of Rambus. “With this new comprehensive and mutually beneficial agreement, our technology will be further deployed across a wide array of products and applications, benefitting customers by improving the security of digital systems.”

In settling all outstanding claims, the agreement also covers ST’s use of Rambus’ patented memory interface and serial-link innovations, adds ST.

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with ST, a global leader in the semiconductor industry,” said Dr. Ron Black, president and chief executive officer, Rambus. “Covering multiple Rambus divisions, this agreement exemplifies our ability to add value across ST’s product lines, and we look forward to ongoing collaboration with the ST team.”

In a separate release Rambus updated its revenue guidance for the quarter ending June 30, 2013, narrowing the range to $56 million to $58 million from the initial range of $53 million to $58 million. In addition, subsequent to the Hynix settlement announced last week, the Company will be reversing a prior accrual included in operating expenses, related to previously awarded costs of $8 million in litigation expenses.

Source: ST and Rambus