Advantest and SynTest Team on Failure Diagnostics for Advanced SoCs

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Advantest Corporation (NYSE: ATE; Toronto: 6857), a global leader in semiconductor test systems, today announced it is teaming with Sunnyvale, Calif.-based SynTest Technologies, a leading provider of design-for-test (DFT) technology, to deliver fast, accurate failure diagnostics for deep-submicron, high-speed system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The two companies have partnered to streamline and facilitate communications between Advantest's T6000 automated test equipment (ATE) family and SynTest's new ATE-based debug and failure analysis software, TurboDiagnosis(TM), for optimized discovery and repair of device failures. The SynTest's TurboDiagnosis software will be formally introduced in the fourth quarter 2002.

SoC markets today require shorter turnaround times to bridge the technical gap between design and production-test teams. Thus, SoC development efforts are increasingly focused on reducing time to market, improving production margins, reducing design and manufacturing costs, and implementing overall cost-of-test reduction methodologies, such as DFT. According to Dr. L.T. Wang, president and chief executive officer of SynTest Technologies, "Providing customers with an automated diagnostic flow reduces the amount of time required for prototype debug and failure analysis and, more importantly, accelerates yield improvements and volume production of advanced SoC devices. This partnership with Advantest helps reduce the barrier between design and prototype test by linking best-in-class products in an intuitive and transparent flow."

Nick Konidaris, president and CEO of Advantest America, Inc., noted, "Advantest is committed to creating partnerships and enacting best-in-class practices that will enable us to continually provide our customers with the most advanced SoC test capabilities possible-growing our position in the SoC test market is of paramount importance to our future roadmap. We look forward to working with technology leaders such as SynTest to help us achieve these strategic objectives."

The ATE-to-DFT Link

Advantest's T6000 series ATE systems transfer to SynTest's debug and failure analysis software, via an integrated, bi-directional communication link, the failure data on the location of the device. The SynTest software receives and analyzes the data, using failure logs from the T6000 series, and automatically generates diagnostic patterns to precisely identify the failing node and discover the most common defects. The combination of the SynTest diagnosis software and the failure logs is particularly effective for diagnosing scan-based designs, the largest and most time-consuming part of any DFT methodology. These designs can have scan inserted using SynTest's VirtualScan(TM) (announced September 3) and TurboScan(TM) as well as other popular scan tools.

Products incorporating the high-speed communication link will be available from Advantest and SynTest in the fourth quarter 2002.

About SynTest

SynTest Technologies, Inc. develops and markets advanced design-for-test (DFT) and design-for debug/diagnosis (DFD) tools to semiconductor companies, ASIC designers and test groups throughout the world. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the company has offices in Taiwan, Korea and Japan. The company's products improve an electronic design's testability and fault coverage, and result in reduced defect levels, reduced costly tester time, and reduced slippage in time-to-market. These products include tools for built-in self-test (BIST) for logic and memory, boundary-scan synthesis, DFT testability analysis, scan synthesis, automatic test-program generation (ATPG), concurrent fault simulation, silicon debug and diagnosis. More information is available at www.syntest.com. SynTest Technologies Inc. is headquartered at 505 South Pastoria Ave., Suite 101, Sunnyvale, California 94086, Phone: 408-720-9956, E-Mail: info@syntest.com

About Advantest

Advantest Corporation is one of the world's leading automatic test equipment suppliers to the semiconductor industry, and is also a producer of electronic and optoelectronic instruments and systems. A global company, Advantest has long offered total ATE solutions, and serves the industry in every component of semiconductor test: tester, handler, mechanical and electrical interfaces, and software. Its logic, memory, mixed-signal and RF testers, and device handlers, are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor fabrication lines in the world. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its North American subsidiary in 1982. Advantest America, Inc.; Advantest America R&D Center, Inc.; and Advantest Test Engineering Corporation are based in Santa Clara, Calif. Advantest America Design Center, Inc. is located in Portland, Ore. The newly established Advantest America Measuring Solutions, Inc., based in Edison, N.J., distributes Advantest electronic measuring instrument products in North America. More information is available at www.advantest.com

NOTE: TurboDiagnosis, TurboScan and VirtualScan are trademarks of SynTest Technologies. All other trademarks and tradenames are the property of their respective owners.