Rambus splits 4-for-1

Rambus Inc.(Nasdaq: RMBS) announced a 4-for-1 stock split Friday, sending shares up 30 35/64 to 410, or 8 percent.

Shares in the developer of technology for speeding up communication between memory chips and processors have been climbing sharply since November, when its memory-chip standard was incorporated in Intel's popular 820 chipset. The stock surged most recently ahead of an Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) conference on expectations that Intel would provide more rave reviews for the chipmaker.

Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), the top stock of 1999, is one of the few others to have announced a 4-for-1 split in recent times.

Rambus said its board had approved the 4-for-1 split, subject to stockholder approval of an increase in shares to 500 million. The record date of the stock split is expected to be May 24, with the pay date of June 14.

The split would increase the number of Rambus shares outstanding to about 96 million.