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KLA-Tencor and GetSiliconâ„¢ Tackle IC Supply Chain Management Challenges with Remote Access, Real-Time Yield Monitoring
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SAN JOSE and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 10, 2001 - KLA-Tencor Corp. (Nasdaq: KLAC) and GetSilicon™ Inc. today announced that they are partnering to develop new solutions to minimize chipmakers' inventory costs, as well as reduce their work-in-progress (WIP) cycle times. GetSilicon will leverage KLA-Tencor's ACENET™ software, based on the company's Klarity ACE yield analysis technology, with its own Internet-based supply chain management services to enable real-time, remote access of yield-lot information on product wafers that have been outsourced to foundries. With access to this data throughout the entire integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing process-from the wafer fab to final test-fabless IC companies, integrated device manufacturers and application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) houses can more effectively manage their WIP inventory, and more accurately measure product performance and project product availability.

"Until now, IC foundry customers had no clear indication of what their yields were until after final test," stated Edwin Law, vice president of professional services at GetSilicon. "Too many wafer runs resulted in increased inventory costs, while unexpected losses in yield could result in delays in meeting production goals. KLA-Tencor's ACENET technology provides us with a critical new information tool that enables our customers to determine the exact status of their yields on a given lot via the Internet at any point during production. By combining our respective products, our customers now have access to a single supply chain management system that optimizes their inventory management, while providing continuous quality control monitoring."

GetSilicon's complete suite of services enables buyers and suppliers to exchange and track supply chain data in real time, including forecast, order, WIP status, yield, inventory, shipping, receiving and invoicing information. Customers benefit from more accurate planning, improved production control, reduced cycle time and inventory, and increased profits and customer satisfaction.

"This partnership illustrates the growing recognition that yield management is an important component of IC supply chain management," stated Dr. Ellis Chang, vice president and general manager of KLA-Tencor's Yield Solutions Division. "We are pleased that GetSilicon has chosen to add our yield analysis technology to its range of services. Our Klarity ACE platform is widely recognized as the industry standard in yield analysis, and has been adopted by the three leading global foundries and the top 50 fabless IC companies. Working with GetSilicon, we can provide chipmakers that outsource their products with a whole new level of engineering support and enable them to more rapidly achieve their production success."

According to the terms of the partnership, KLA-Tencor will license the use of ACENET to GetSilicon, which is authorized to offer the technology as an option to customers as part of its supply chain management services. GetSilicon plans to offer wafer sort yield, wafer map, electrical test analysis and final test yield reporting along with its existing suite of supply chain management tools.

"We intend to leverage the integrated solution to advance our existing fabless manufacturing into the true virtual manufacturing model," stated Michael Wang, vice president of business systems at Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. (ISSI). "ISSI can focus on our core design and marketing competencies, but is able to effectively collaborate with all our manufacturing partners in a real-time, on-line fashion as if they were part of our company."


About GetSilicon Inc.: Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., with sales, development and support offices in California and Taiwan, GetSilicon provides web-based solutions to the semiconductor manufacturing community with end-to-end connectivity for data exchange and enables forecast-to-payment transaction executions as well as total supply chain visibility. Founded in 2000 and armed with industry know-how, GetSilicon delivers best in class solutions to support the collaborations of buyers and suppliers in semiconductor manufacturing. GetSilicon provides streamlined, accurate and real-time data flow between trading partners, enabling them to manage their businesses more effectively for reduced cycle time, minimized inventory, increased profit and higher customer satisfaction. Additional information about the company is available on the Internet at http://www.getsilicon.net


About KLA-Tencor: KLA-Tencor is the world leader in yield management and process control solutions for semiconductor manufacturing and related industries. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., the company has sales and service offices around the world. An S&P 500 company, KLA-Tencor is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol KLAC.

Contact:
Meggan Powers
Director Corporate Communications

 

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