News Briefs for Sept. 30, 2005

Communications company Alltel of Little Rock, Ark., is donating $1 million to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to help recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast led by former Presidents George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton. The company also has contributed more than $500,000 to the Alltel Charitable Fund to support the approximately 250 Alltel employees who were affected by Hurricane Katrina and has pledged to match employee contributions to the internal fund, which is expected to reach about $250,000. . . . Rambus Inc., a Los Altos, Calif.-based licensing company specializing in high-speed chip interfaces, has signed a patent license agreement with semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Technology Corp. that allows the development and manufacture of integrated circuits employing interfaces based on Rambus' patented inventions. The five-year agreement covers high-speed controllers and other interfaces invented by Rambus, with Renesas providing the company with monetary and other compensation. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed. . . . Norlight Telecommunications Inc., a Wisconsin-based provider of customized, integrated voice and data solutions for businesses, has appointed Christopher Kearney to the newly created position of director of IP telephony engineering. Kearney's most recent position was with Greenwich Technology partners of New York, N.Y., where he served as director of solutions architecture for the convergence group.