Rambus and Nvidia have settled past lawsuits and signed a patent agreement covering a broad range of integrated circuit products, Rambus said on Wednesday.

Rambus is considering whether to appeal the Wednesday jury verdict that scuttled its antitrust suit against Hynix Semiconductor and Micron Technologies, which could have required the defendants to pay nearly US$12 billion in damages.

A San Francisco jury has rejected a US$4 billion antitrust claim by Rambus against rival RAM makers Hynix Semiconductor and Micron Technology, a California court announced Wednesday.

A U.S. appeals court has ruled on two patent lawsuits that pit Rambus against two competing DRAM makers, sending both cases back to district courts for reconsideration.

Rambus on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire security technology company Cryptography Research (CRI) for US$342.5 million in a cash and stock deal. The move could help the company address interest among chip makers to add security features on hardware.

Nvidia has signed an agreement to license Rambus patents on memory controllers following a ruling against Nvidia at the U.S. International Trade Commission, the two companies announced.

Rambus' agreement to settle legal claims with Samsung Electronics could accelerate deals that could help new memory technology being developed by Rambus get to market faster, analysts said.

Samsung Electronics and Rambus on Tuesday announced they had settled outstanding claims over licensing, which should net Rambus more than US$700 million over the next five years.