Rambus and Mentor Graphics Collaborate to Offer Interoperable PCI Express Solutions; Proven PCI Express-Compliant Solutions Now Available to Chip Designers

LOS ALTOS, Calif .-- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- June 28, 2004 -- Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS), a leading developer of chip interface products and services, and Mentor Graphics (Nasdaq:MENT), the market leader in printed circuit board (PCB) design software, today announced that they are working together to develop and offer interoperable platforms for PCI Express(a) chip designers. This collaboration accelerates PCI Express-based system design and provides a PCI Express test environment that minimizes design risk to enable designers to focus more resources on product differentiation. In addition, Mentor Graphics and Rambus are providing more information about their intellectual property (IP) products and the joint interoperability platform in a series of design seminars that are currently being held worldwide.

As part of the joint effort, Rambus and Mentor Graphics have developed a hardware platform that consists of Rambus's RaSer PHY interface for PCI Express applications, and the Mentor Graphics(R) PCI Express Configurable Port. The resulting PCI Express platform supports one or four channels, each operating at 2.5 gigabits per second. The interface compatibility between the IP products was verified using Mentor Graphics' ModelSim product.

"For many designers, emerging standards like PCI Express are sometimes difficult to implement because of the lack of verified subsystems," said Dave Wood, PCI Express product line manager for the Intellectual Property division of Mentor Graphics. "Rambus is a recognized leader by being the first to provide silicon-proven PHYs and have a broad portfolio of PCI Express PHY products. Our collaboration with Rambus allows us to provide designers with a solution that is proven to interoperate across the PCI Express protocol stack and with other PCI Express systems."

"Working with leading IP partners like Mentor Graphics allows us to help chip designers bring PCI Express solutions to market faster," said Jean-Marc Patenaude, marketing director for the Logic Interface Division at Rambus. "The momentum behind the PCI Express architecture continues to grow and this collaboration offers customers access to the latest high-speed serial I/O technology."

The Rambus RaSer serial link interface family includes 0.18-micron, 0.13-micron and 90nanometer versions on multiple foundry processes. Rambus customers are already developing graphics, chipset, switch and bridge chips for applications using the PCI Express standard. In addition, Rambus offers its customers engineering services for chip integration, package, board and system characterization and test in order to ensure success in the development of PCI Express-based chips and boards.

The Mentor Graphics PCI Express Configurable Port includes full support for the specification for endpoint, legacy endpoint, bridges, switch, and root complex applications. The IP is designed to be very flexible with a rich set of configurable features to allow the IP to be tuned for particular applications and bandwidths. Configurable options include the number of virtual channels, the number of lanes (up to 16) and links per port (up to 4) and the maximum payload size. The IP is designed to achieve low latency (with cut-through) and enables back-to-back packets. The configurable port is also "advanced switching" ready in the data link layer.

Additional information about the Mentor Graphics-Rambus PCI Express solution can be found online at www.mentor.com/inventra. Additionally, for more information on the joint design seminar series, visit www.mentor.com/inventra/seminars/pci_express.html.

About Rambus Inc.

Rambus is one of the world's leading providers of advanced chip interface products and services. Since its founding in 1990, the company's innovations, breakthrough technologies and integration expertise have helped industry-leading chip and system companies solve their most challenging and complex I/O problems and bring their products to market. Rambus's interface solutions can be found in numerous computing, consumer, and communications products and applications. Rambus is headquartered in Los Altos, Calif., with regional offices in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Taiwan and Japan. Additional information is available at www.rambus.com.

Rambus is a registered trademark and RaSer is a trademark of Rambus Inc. Other trademarks that may be mentioned in this release are the intellectual property of their respective owners.

(a) PCI Express is a trademark of PCI-SIG.

Forward-looking statements include statements about the adoption rate of the PCI Express interconnect into and suitability for the computing, consumer and communications markets, as well as the dates of when PCI Express-based systems are expected to ship into their respective markets. Additional forward-looking statements include the ability of Rambus RaSer cells to provide design flexibility in silicon proven process technologies as well as the adoption of these cells in leading PC chipset, graphics, and communication switch and bridge chip applications. 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 reduced market adoption of the PCI Express interconnect protocol, the market response to these products, 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 RaSer cell technologies, adverse litigation decisions and other factors that are described in our SEC filings including our 10-K and 10-Qs.