Credence Enters Memory Verification Market; First Affordable, Flexible Benchtop Tools Dedicated for Memory Verification of NVM Devices to be Shown at Semicon West 98.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 15, 1998--Credence Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:CMOS), an international leader in the manufacture of automatic test equipment (ATE) for the semiconductor industry, today announced the industry's first affordable bitmap system dedicated to verification of memory devices.

The introduction of BTMA-2001 at the annual SEMICON West Trade Show, held here, marks Credence's entrance into the growing market for cost-effective, flexible benchtop testers targeting nonvolatile memories, such as EPROMs, EEPROMs, and Flash.

Increasing demands on memory design and failure analysis engineers cannot be met with traditional tools, which are either too costly or not accessible enough. Created with an eye toward today's high paced product development cycle with an ever shorter time-to-market, the BTMA-2001 is a memory bitmap system that integrates advanced compact benchtop hardware with powerful verification software and an intuitive and flexible graphical user interface (GUI). Unlike most test equipment, the BTMA-2001 uses these features to generate topologically correct bitmap representations of memory devices.

"As the designs for nonvolatile memories become denser, engineers need a cost-effective way to verify multiple portions of the complex designs to avoid costly workarounds," said Bill Bottoms, Credence's CEO. "Credence saw this as a market opportunity and met this challenge by providing an easy to use, affordable bitmap memory system without sacrificing power or flexibility," he added.

The BTMA-2001 is the first memory bitmap system provided by Credence and is the result of its recent purchase of two HPL divisions.

Affordable Access

With a small footprint (h: 9.5" x w: 22.25" x d: 16") priced up to five times less than traditional large-scale test equipment designed for production use, the BTMA-2001 allows every design engineer and failure analysis engineer to have full-time access to efficient test equipment.

Traditionally, these users had to schedule time on the high-end testers and pay for its use. They also had to "borrow" a production test programmer to develop test suites on the larger systems. What used to take days or weeks to develop a test the traditional way, the BTMA-2001 now can accomplish in a matter of minutes. The result: almost instant bitmap and data results that mean shorter development and verification process and accelerated design completion.

Topological Display

The BTMA-2000 series provides a true physical display of the device memory core. Unlike most systems, this feature is independent of device organization and layout. BitMap data can be displayed as combinations of various types of device information, such as True Data, Compare Data, All Failures, Failures for "1", Failures for "0". In addition, data can be accumulated, and stored data may also be applied as a per-bit error mask during later test executions.

The BTMA-2001 also features innovative software that was designed specifically for memory verification at the design, characterization, failure analysis, and customer return phases of the testing cycle. It offers built-in Shmoo plot software and a unique curve tracer software that simplifies the task of I/V characterization. These dedicated software tools minimize the complexity of using a bitmap system, allowing engineers to focus on their primary jobs.

Flexibility

Flexibility is key to allowing design engineers to complete their verification test suites sooner. The BTMA-2001 features an intuitive GUI that is compatible with all HPL software on the higher-end HPL test systems in the labs. This virtually eliminates any need to retrain engineers on a new system. The GUI, combined with the ability to access the verification system on the engineer's desktop, gives the user significantly higher flexibility to perform tests, quickly revise them and design and redesign without delays.

About Credence

Credence Systems Corp. is a leader in the manufacture of automatic test equipment (ATE) for the worldwide semiconductor industry. Credence offers a wide range of products with test capabilities for digital, mixed-signal, and memory semiconductors. Utilizing its patented CMOS technologies, Credence products are designed to meet the strict time-to-market and cost of ownership requirements of its customers.

Headquartered in Fremont, Calif., the company maintains advanced production and design facilities in Beaverton, Ore. Credence, an ISO 9001 certified manufacturer, is listed on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol CMOS. More information is available at www.credence.com.

Note to Editors: Credence and Credence Systems are trademarks of Credence Systems Corp. Other trademarks that may be mentioned in this release are the intellectual property of their respective owners.

Credence will demonstrating the BTMA-2001 in booth No. 11927 during SEMICON West 98 (July 15 -17) in the San Jose Convention Center.

    CONTACT: Credence Systems Corp.
              Connie Graybeal, 510/623-4774
              [e-mail]
               or
              The Loomis Group Inc.
              Bruce Bedortha, 415/882-9494
              [e-mail]
              www.loomisgroup.com