The company, which receives licensing fees from patents of its memory chip designs, lost US$23.3 million compared with a loss of US$15.5 million in fourth-quarter 2008.

Rambus, which designs memory chips, said that an administrative judge for the US International Trade Commission has ruled that graphics chip maker Nvidia has violated three of its patents.

A settlement between Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE) and Rambus Inc. (RMBS) in their long-running legal battles could push co-defendents Micron Technology Inc. (MU) and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. (000660.SE) to do the same, instead of risking billions in potential damages.

Samsung Electronics and Rambus have reached an agreement settling all claims between them and the licensing of Rambus' patent portfolio for all Samsung semiconductor products.

The case in San Francisco County Superior Court centers on allegations by Rambus that Micron Technology, Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor illegally conspired to boycott technology developed by Rambus and took other actions to block its acceptance.

Europe's top antitrust regulator agreed to end its investigation of memory chip maker Rambus on December 9, after the firm agreed to change the way it licenses its industry-standard technology.

Rambus has announced that Samsung Electronics will offer a 1Gb XDR DRAM memory device, which will broaden the availability of XDR technology for gaming, computing and consumer electronics applications.

European regulators are set to accept a proposal by Rambus to cut royalties to settle antitrust charges, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Rambus Technology has posted a net loss of US$27.5 million in the third quarter compared to losses of US$24.0 million in the second quarter and US$30.9 million a year ago.

Rambus has evolved its mobile memory technology further in its second generation silicon, which brings its high-bandwidth mobile memory controller to an achievable power efficiency of 2.2mW/Gbps.

Rambus and Kingston Technology have jointly announced a collaborative development of a threaded module prototype using DDR3 DRAM technology.

"Semiconductor shipments rose to meet current OEM demand, after an overcorrection earlier this year, driving an increase in our variable royalty payments and consequently higher expected revenue for the quarter," said Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer at Rambus.

Shares of memory chip developer Rambus rose 8% on September 4 on speculation that Samsung Electronics would buy the company, but Samsung said it had no such plans.

The antitrust trial between memory chip designer Rambus and several chip makers, including Micron Technology, has been postponed, according to reports.

Rambus has showcased an XDR memory system that delivers data rates of up to 7.2Gbps, with Elpida's recently-announced 1Gb XDR DRAM device.

Hynix is gratified that the court rejected Rambus' request for an injunction, but is disappointed by the district court's damages ruling and will file an appeal when the final judgment is entered. Hynix believes that Rambus's patents, as has been recently confirmed by certain rulings of the US Patent & Trademark Office, are invalid. In addition, Hynix maintains that Rambus' conduct in destroying evidence relevant to the litigation between Hynix and Rambus, and Rambus and the rest of the DRAM industry, bars Rambus from enforcing its patents.

Rambus's case against Micron may be headed for dismissal if comments by federal judge Ronald Whyte are any indication. According to Whyte, a Delaware court's decision earlier this January to throw out Rambus' claims based on spoliation leave him no room for discretion.

Micron Technology has announced that the US District Court of Delaware has found that patents Rambus had asserted against Micron are unenforceable. The Delaware Court found that “the spoliation conduct was extensive, including within its scope the destruction of innumerable documents relating to all aspects of Rambus’ business.”

Rambus shares surged for the second straight day Wednesday after the chip maker received a positive pre-trial ruling in California in its patent case against some of the largest semiconductor companies in the world. According to a court document on Rambus's Web site, on Monday a U.S. District judge issued a summary decision in favor of Rambus, saying the chip makers infringed on certain aspects of Rambus's patents. The chipmakers named in the case are Hynix Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics, Nanya Technology and Micron Technology.

The Supreme Court has refused to consider appeals from Samsung Electronics in a case against Rambus, a memory design and patent licensing company, closing a saga that began in 2005 over alleged patent infringement.

Chip designer Rambus Inc. has asked a federal judge in San Jose to rule that Hynix Semiconductor Inc. can't sell chips in the US. Rambus has filed similar suits against Samsung Electronics Co. and Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology alleging they conspired to fix prices for memory chips.