AMD purchases AutoSimulations' Real Time Dispatcher for semiconductor manufacturing worldwide.

BOUNTIFUL, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 1997--AutoSimulations Inc., Thursday announced that Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) purchased AutoSimulations' Real Time Dispatcher (RTD)(TM) and AutoSched(TM) product family software, a suite of simulation, scheduling and reporting tools, for use in its semiconductor manufacturing facilities worldwide.

The AutoSched product family software was selected after an extensive search for advanced planning and scheduling solutions.

The AutoSched product family consists of three major components: the Simulator (AutoSched AP or ASAP), the Real Time Dispatcher and the ISS Reporter (ISS). The three components are linked via a common repository, which contains a temporal (time-based) representation of the state of the factory.

Using highly integrated interception techniques, each transaction made in AMD's manufacturing execution system (WorkStream(TM) by Consilium) is logged in the repository.

This repository provides a highly efficient way of providing the current factory state or the factory state at any point in the recent history of the system. The ISS Reporter can then access this historical and/or current date to quickly build ad hoc and production reports to provide time-based analysis.

With RTD, AMD intends to deploy custom dispatching rules that execute against the repository. AMD will be able to author and test the rules using simulation and then use the exact same rules in production with RTD.

As every transaction made in the manufacturing execution system is intercepted in real time, RTD is capable of dynamically re-calculating dispatch lists on the basis of the most recent state of the factory. The dispatch lists are presented within WorkStream in a fully integrated dispatch screen.

AMD's business plans include implementation in five existing wafer fabs, new fabs scheduled to come on line and all sort, assembly and test facilities. The first installation of the AutoSched product family has already been completed at AMD's Fab 25 in Austin, Texas.

According to Don Bolin, director of Planning and Logistics of AMD's Wafer Fab Group, "AutoSimulations' RTD system will provide cutting-edge capability to AMD's capacity to deliver high-volume products to an array of customers in a timely fashion. It will enable AMD to optimize production achieved by synchronization of product and resource events.

"The system also enhances our ability to analyze factory performance, hypothesize and simulate new operating policies, and to implement the most promising policies in order to continuously improve our efficiency."

Randy Burdick, AMD's vice president of Information Technology, added, "No other scheduling product provides this level of integration and performance." Burdick went on to say, "AMD will greatly benefit from the historical ad hoc reporting capability by enabling us to analyze the history of events at any given time in any plant."

Mike Thompson, president of AutoSimulations, commented, "We're truly excited to be able to deliver the tools that our customers are asking for. The benefit to semiconductor manufacturing is that our products focus on the event-by-event activities and decisions within the factory."

The AutoSched product family is installed at over 300 semiconductor manufacturing sites worldwide. AutoSimulations Inc. was established in 1982. AutoSimulations develops, markets and supports simulation and scheduling software products installed at over 1,000 facilities.

In addition to AMD, the company includes among its client base: Analog Devices, IBM, National Semiconductor, Lucent Technologies, SGS Thomson Microelectronics, Sony Semiconductor and many others. Headquartered in Bountiful, AutoSimulations maintains sales and support operations worldwide.

AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets. AMD produces processors, flash memories, programmable logic devices and products for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, Calif., AMD had revenues of $2 billion in 1996.

Fab 25, located in Austin, Texas, houses nearly 87K square feet of Class I clean room space. Fab 25 is outfitted with the latest equipment and is among the world's most cost-effective fabs.

When fully equipped, Fab 25 will have a production capacity of approximately 6,000 eight-inch wafers per week. Fab 25 is designed to support several generations of process technology and is capable of executing 0.25 micron technology.

CONTACT: AutoSimulations Inc., Bountiful

Karen Stanley, 801/298-1398 ext. 300

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PPC&H Public Relations, Salt Lake City

Stephanie Miller, 801/487-4800

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