If operators are to build 5G mobile networks with download speeds at 10Gbps and above, they are going to need a lot more spectrum—but getting it won’t be easy.

The amount of spectrum allocated to 5G will determine how fast networks based on the technology will eventually become. Until recently, only frequencies below 6GHz have been considered for mobile networks, mostly because they are good for covering large areas. But there’s now a growing need to unlock new spectrum bands in the 6GHz to 100GHz range too, attendees at the LTE and 5G World Summit conferences in Amsterdam heard this week.

The use of spectrum in these bands is immensely important for 5G networks to be able to offer multiple gigabits per second, Robert DiFazio, chief engineer at wireless R&D company InterDigital Communications, said. By raising communication speeds, they are also expected to help lower latency in mobile networks.

Rambus Inc. said it would receive an additional $432 million from chip maker SK Hynix Inc. under a six-year extension of a licensing agreement, the latest fruits from a trove of patents that prompted years of court battles.

Under the deal announced Thursday, SK Hynix would continue to pay Rambus about $12 million a quarter until 2024. The companies in 2013 agreed to settle their legal disputes, with SK Hynix agreeing to pay $240 million over five years through the $12 million quarterly payments.

SK Hynix, based in South Korea, is one of the largest makers of the chip known as dynamic random access memory, or DRAM. Competitors include Samsung Electronics Co. and Micron Technology Inc.

Rambus, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., in the 1990s developed technologies to help boost the performance of memory chips. After failing to convince chip makers to license its technology, Rambus resorted to patent litigation that prompted a legal backlash along with antitrust charges by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The agency dropped its case after an adverse ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In recent years, Rambus made peace with most of its former opponents. In December 2013, for example, Micron agreed to pay up to $280 million to Rambus over seven years.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/sk-hynix-to-pay-432-million-more-to-rambus-20150618-01082#ixzz3eAGVuzax

A new report from Taiwan says that wholesale contract prices for DDR4 memory have fallen sharply over the past few months. The fall is mainly attributed to Samsung reducing its prices to gain market share. Samsung Semiconductor happens to be a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, and is the world’s single largest manufacturer of semiconductor memory chips. With rapidly diminishing margins, some DRAM manufacturers are also reportedly considering postponing their proposed shift to the 20nm process till the end of the year or even later, to reduce their capital expenditure, according to industry sources. Meanwhile, with prices at an all-time low, OEMs are reportedly stocking up on DDR4 memory sourced directly from the semiconductor manufacturers, rather than from the DRAM vendors.

Nvidia Corp. is mulling to reconsider prices of select high-end graphics cards in order to further strengthen its positions in the market advanced graphics solutions. If the company proceeds with the plan, it will get considerably harder for Advanced Micro Devices to regain market share it lost to Nvidia in 2014.

AMD’s recently introduced Radeon R9 300-series graphics cards are based on “Hawaii” and “Tonga” graphics processing units that have been available for several quarters and demand for such adapters is not strong in the channel, two sources with knowledge of the matter have revealed. AMD’s new flagship Radeon R9 Fury X graphics board is powered by a brand-new “Fiji” GPU and offers higher performance than its predecessors.

Even though Nvidia has a substantial competitive advantage over its rival even after the latter introduced its new products, the company is considering ways how to improve sales its high-end graphics cards.

One of the ways to boost sales of GeForce products is to reconsider pricing of GeForce GTX 980 Ti and possibly GeForce GTX 970/980. Prices of GeForce GTX 980 Ti and GeForce GTX 980 are very competitive in the U.S., but in Europe and the U.K. they are pretty high. In a bid to make its GeForce GTX 980 Ti more popular, Nvidia may decrease its prices, at least in some countries, according to a market rumour.

If Nvidia changes prices of its GeForce GTX 980 Ti and GeForce GTX 980, AMD will have to reconsider prices of its Radeon R9 Fury X as well as Radeon R9 390X in a bid to stay competitive.