Asyst Puts New Fab Transport System On the Fast Track With Multimillion-Dollar Customer Win; Atmel Selects FasTrack System for Full-Fab Implementation in Texas.

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 5, 2000

Less than two months after unveiling its new FasTrack(TM) automated fab transport system at SEMICON West 2000, Asyst Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:ASYT), the world's largest semiconductor fab automation company, today announced its first FasTrack customer. Atmel Corporation (Nasdaq:ATML) (San Jose, Calif.) has placed a multimillion-dollar order for a fabwide implementation of the advanced FasTrack system at its Fab 8 facility in Irving, Texas, which produces advanced nonvolatile memories and microcontrollers on 200mm wafers. Installation is slated for full completion in 2001.

Atmel's selection of the FasTrack system, designed to efficiently transport and protect valued semiconductor wafers throughout the entire manufacturing process, represents the first U.S. installation of continuous-flow transport (CFT) technology for a fab automated material handling system (AMHS), as well as a follow-on order for Asyst. Earlier this year, Atmel purchased a full complement of Asyst Standard Mechanical InterFace (SMIF) products for Fab 8, including SMIF-LPTs(TM) for transferring cassettes into and out of process equipment, SMART-Tags(TM) for wafer lot tracking, and SMIF pods for encapsulating wafer cassettes and single-reticle pods.

Said Dr. T.C. Wu, Atmel's senior vice president and chief technology officer, "We are very impressed with the Asyst FasTrack technology. We believe it offers a powerful combination of features unavailable anywhere else -- high throughput, high capacity and small footprint, as well as flexibility and predictable performance. FasTrack will be essential to helping Atmel ensure that Fab 8 remains state-of-the-art in every sense, both now and in the future."

Dennis Riccio, Asyst's senior vice president of global customer operations, noted, "The Atmel FasTrack order is a huge win for us. It's a full-fab implementation of our newest product line -- one that is fully optimized for future 300mm manufacturing and yet applicable today to 200mm. The order highlights our technology's key competitive advantages, and, more importantly, it validates the success of our existing relationship with Atmel. We believe that Atmel's satisfaction with our SMIF technology led to their interest in FasTrack as a critical component for a full, fabwide automation solution."

FasTrack, built from the ground up to conform to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) interoperability standards, is a key component of Asyst's "Value Assured Fab" strategy, which leverages isolation, robotics, tracking, software automation and transport technology to protect the integrity of semiconductor wafers and reticles throughout the entire integrated circuit (IC) fabrication process. FasTrack's unique, open architecture addresses multiple transport challenges while seamlessly integrating interbay and intrabay transport systems to improve fab equipment utilization. The system's ability to move hundreds of carriers independently and simultaneously provides customers with high capacity, short and predictable delivery times and worry-free capability to ramp the fab's output. Its modular design gives customers the ability to easily expand the system, add vicinity loading stations and interface to intrabay systems.

FasTrack's capabilities are designed to help decrease AMHS capital costs by approximately 25 percent and improve the speed and predictability of transport delivery by as much as 50 percent. As a result, FasTrack is ideal for fabs in which automation is essential for every lot at every step of production.

The management of Asyst Technologies will host a conference call with the investment community, the media and the general public to discuss the opportunities provided by this customer win. Call details: Wednesday, September 6, 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time/12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. All interested participants may call in to: 800/276-6308 or 303/205-0033.

About Atmel: Founded in 1984, Atmel Corporation is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with manufacturing facilities in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Irving, Texas; Nantes and Rousset, France and Heilbronn, Germany. Atmel designs, manufactures and markets on a worldwide basis advanced logic, mixed-signal, non-volatile memory, and RF semiconductors. Atmel is also a leading provider of system level integration semiconductor solutions using advanced CMOS, BiCMOS, Bipolar and SiGe process technologies.

About Asyst: Asyst Technologies, Inc. is the leading provider of manufacturing automation systems that enable semiconductor makers to protect customers' valued assets throughout the manufacturing process while increasing manufacturing productivity. Asyst offers a broad range of 200mm and 300mm products that enable the Company to provide semiconductor manufacturers and OEMs automated manufacturing solutions for the transfer of wafers and information between the process equipment and the fab line. Asyst's homepage is http://www.asyst.com.

Note to Editors: FasTrack, SMART-Tag, SMIF, SMIF-Pod, and SMIF-LPT are trademarks of Asyst Technologies, Inc.