Asyst Technologies Announces Semiconductor Equipment Industry's First Five-Year Product Warranty.Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :ASYT), the world's leading supplier of SMIF SMIF Standard Mechanical Interface SMIF Stream-based Model Interchange Format SMIF Shared Materials Instrumentation Facility (Duke University) SMIF Stanford Management Internship Fund SMIF SMAD4-Interacting Transcription Factor technology, today announced the semiconductor equipment industry's first five-year product warranty covering parts, workmanship and labor for all Asyst products. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. company officials, the extended-term warranty is based on reliability data compiled from audits of its global installed base. "The real news here is that Asyst has been able to achieve excellent levels of reliability," said Michael Wright of Wright Williams and Kelly, a semiconductor industry consulting firm Noun 1. consulting firm - a firm of experts providing professional advice to an organization for a fee consulting company business firm, firm, house - the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments; "he worked for a in Dublin, Calif. "Reliability is a significant factor in reducing cost-of-ownership - a critical issue facing the semiconductor industry today," explained Wright, who leads cost-of-ownership modeling classes for trade association Semiconductor Equipment Materials International (SEMI). "This is the beginning of a trend we can expect to see from the more robust semiconductor equipment suppliers." Asyst's President and Chief Operating Officer Chief Operating Officer (COO) The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. , Bruce Rhine, explained that because Asyst's products interface with nearly 90 percent of process tool types used in the world's semiconductor fabs, the company's products have to be dependable. "We recognize the importance of reliability in the cost-of-ownership equation, and build our SMIF systems accordingly," Rhine noted. OEMs are another driving force moving the industry toward higher product reliability and longer-term warranties, observed Rhine. "OEMs are pushing for products with longer MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) The average time a component works without failure. It is the number of failures divided by the hours under observation. MTBF - Mean Time Between Failures and MTTR (Mean Time To Repair, Mean Time To Restore) The average time it takes to repair a failed component. See reliability. MTTR - Mean Time To Recovery ratings in order to outperform the competition," Rhine said. "By introducing a five-year warranty program, we're taking a proactive role to meet OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and requirements." Asyst reports that its warranty is based on reliability modeling of the company's worldwide installed product base. For example, one customer site reported greater than 99.97 percent uptime before it stopped measuring. At another customer site, the company's integrated SMIF-Indexer surpassed 138,000 cycles without interrupt or failure. (SEMI defines "interrupt" as any failure taking less than six minutes to repair. A "failure" takes more than six minutes to repair.) Asyst's installed base includes sealed wafer carriers for transporting and storing wafers (SMIF-Pods), minienvironments that enclose process tools (SMIF-Enclosures), and automated wafer cassette transfer mechanisms that work as stand-alone systems (SMIF-Arms) or that can be integrated directly into process tools (SMIF-Indexers). Together, these products create an ultraclean transfer system that protects products from ambient conditions. In addition to the complimentary five-year warranty, Asyst offers a number of other service options for its products. About Asyst: Asyst Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of process control and automation systems that help semiconductor manufacturers reduce their IC production costs. Founded in 1984, Asyst Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in Fremont, Calif., with facilities in Europe and the Far East. Asyst's subsidiary, Asyst Automation, Inc., is located outside Boston. The company's common stock trades on the NASDAQ Stock Market Nasdaq stock market The first electronic stock market listing over 5000 companies. The Nasdaq stock market comprises two separate markets, namely the Nasdaq National Market, which trades large, active securities and the Nasdaq Smallcap Market that trades emerging growth companies. under the symbol ASYT. About SMIF: SMIF stands for Standard Mechanical InterFace, the material handling approach that enables wafer transfer to and from sealed SMIF environments without exposure to cleanroom ambient conditions. SEMI standards exist for 150- and 200-mm wafer sizes and are now being defined for 300mm. CONTACT: Asyst Technologies Inc. William Hansen, 510/661-5225 or MCA MCA in full Music Corporation of America Entertainment conglomerate. It was founded in Chicago in 1924 by Jules Stein as a talent agency. In the 1960s it bought Decca Records and Universal Pictures, and today it produces films, music, and television shows. Inc. Margaret Pereira, 415/968-8900 |
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