Credence Systems' CEO Advocates Increased Automation in Semiconductor Testing At ITC.

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 1998--

'Credence really stole the show' according to VLSI Research's

review of new product announcements from more than 120 companies at

the world's premier forum for electronic test technology

Credence Systems Corporation CEO Bill Bottoms, delivering a recent keynote address, told a group of semiconductor industry insiders that increasing the amount of automation associated with semiconductor testing is essential to the industry's ability to keep pace with Moore's Law.

"Transistors built 10 billion at a time cannot be tested one at a time," Dr. Bottoms said at the first IEEE International Workshop on Production Test Automation at the recent International Test Conference (ITC) in Washington, D.C. "The future demands a 'partitioning' solution, delivering the right combination of traditional automated test equipment (ATE), built-in self test (BIST), and our revolutionary new built off-chip self test (BOST) technology."

With the phenomenal growth in the number of gates being packed onto leading edge devices, semiconductor test equipment is having a harder time keeping pace with the 25-30 percent productivity improvements needed to keep afloat Moore's Law, which states the number of gates that engineers are able to put on a chip will double every 18 months. Only through a combination of both traditional and emerging test methods can the most advanced devices continue that type of productivity improvement during testing, Bottoms said.

The speech by Bottoms was just one highlight in a stellar week for Credence. The company got high praise from analysts for its showing at the ITC, when demonstrated the BOST technology for the first time, introduced its new Personal KALOS(tm) tester, and announced an alliance with LogicVision to jointly market software to link each other's products.

According to G. Dan Hutcheson, president of VLSI Research, Credence's exhibition at ITC "stole the show" among ATE vendors. "At this year's ITC Credence really seems to have been thinking out-of-the-box with their announcements in BIST and BOST," Mr. Hutcheson said. "BIST will clearly play a major role in the future of semiconductor testing. By jumping on BIST early, Credence puts itself in a strong position to take advantage of a changing market."

Credence's breakthrough BOST technology uses the tester loadboard, rather than the chip, to integrate BIST, leveraging the benefits of reduced cost and time-to-market, while eliminating the need to allocate chip real estate for BIST. Credence demonstrated BOST on its Quartet One(tm), becoming the first ATE vendor to incorporate BIST into its suite of mixed-signal test platforms. BOST combines the flexibility and performance of an ATE solution with test reprogrammability for advanced embedded devices.

Also at ITC, Credence took another big step toward facilitating the widespread adoption of BIST when it announced a partnership with LogicVision, Inc., whereby the companies will jointly market and develop software that will link their products for logic testing. The combined product, already in development, will run on Credence's ATE systems and enhance the ability of the tester to operate the on-chip embedded ATE created using LogicVision software. The two companies expect the product to beta during the first half of next year.

Credence Systems Corporation 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, California, the company maintains advanced production and design facilities in Beaverton, Oregon. 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.

Credence, Credence Systems, BOST, Personal KALOS and Quartet One are trademarks of Credence Systems Corporation. Other trademarks that may be mentioned in this release are the intellectual property of their respective owners.