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Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing,
Hewlett-Packard Company, and Lucent Technologies Inc Form Alliance to
Standardize Electronic Interface with Foundry
- MILPITAS, Calif. -- Sept. 22, 1999 -- Chartered
Semiconductor Manufacturing, Hewlett-Packard Company, and Lucent
Technologies Inc. have announced they are launching an initiative to set
guidelines for an open standard for electronic communications across the
semiconductor and foundry industry.
- Operating under the nomenclature of the "eFab Alliance," the three
companies will immediately begin designing a preliminary specification that
outlines the core requirements for implementing secure, standardized
electronic communications.
- The eFab Alliance will also encompass the development of standardized
data exchange formats with Chartered Silicon Partners and Silicon
Manufacturing Partners, Chartered's joint-ventures with HP and Lucent,
respectively.
- Why the Need Exists
- While standards exist to standardize terminology, there is no open
standard for delivery of data. Currently, companies use their own individual
formats for information exchanged between customers, suppliers and the
foundry. This requires that recipients re-enter or manually re?format the
data before they can use it. The eFab Alliance seeks to remedy this
situation by building a system that will contain standardized terminology
and formats for the delivery of information between companies.
- The three companies have selected work-in-progress (WIP) as the first
segment of tasks to be framed within the new guidelines.
- Following its initial work, the eFab Alliance will turn its work over to
an independent organization that can advance the guidelines into an open
industry standard that includes all sectors of semiconductor industry. This
includes fabbed and fabless semiconductor companies, foundries, electronic
design automation (EDA) and intellectual property (IP) providers, and
suppliers.
- "The eFab Alliance's work will provide the basis for seamless
communications between clients and foundries. This will provide virtual
organizations with the same real-time supply chain information as physical
organizations," said David Wilson, logistics and service VP for Lucent
Technologies Microelectronics Group. "Going forward this is absolutely key
to serving our customers with the flexibility they require."
- Dr. Justin Lim, vice president of information technology at Chartered
Semiconductor Manufacturing, said, "The project ownership and support of two
industry leaders like HP and Lucent gives the eFab Alliance the benefit of
experience, knowledge, resources and infrastructure to make this a true
standard, not just a single-company effort. All companies in the
semiconductor industry will be able to participate and benefit from their
involvement. We see this project as the beginning of a new era of global
communications."
- About HP
- Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and
imaging solutions and services for business and home -- is focused on
capitalizing on the opportunities of the Internet and the proliferation of
electronic services.
- HP plans to launch Agilent Technologies as an independent company by
mid-calendar 2000. Agilent consists of HP's test and measurement,
semiconductor products, chemical analysis and healthcare solutions
businesses, and has leading positions in multiple market segments.
- HP has 123,500 employees worldwide and had total revenue of $47.1
billion in its 1998 fiscal year. Information about HP, its products and the
company's Year 2000 program can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com./
- About Lucent Technologies Inc
- Lucent Technologies designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public
and private networks, communications systems and software, data networking
systems, business telephone systems and microelectronics components. Bell
Laboratories is the research and development arm for the company. For more
information on Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA,
visits its web site at http://www.lucent.com.
- Lucent's Microelectronics Group designs and manufactures integrated
circuits and optoelectronic components for the computer and communications
industries. More information about the Microelectronics Group is available
from its web site at http://www.lucent.com/micro.
- About Chartered
- Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (www.charteredsemi.com) is a
leading dedicated foundry, offering advanced wafer manufacturing processes
for a broad range of CMOS logic, memory and mixed-signal technologies.
Through alliances with complementary service providers, Chartered helps
customers gain access to best-in-class services ranging from design to
assembly and final test of packaged chips.
- Known for quality processes and exceptional customer service, Chartered
is a recipient of Semiconductor International Magazine's Top Fab
award. Headquartered in Singapore, the Company operates sales and service
offices worldwide. Chartered is a member company of Singapore Technologies,
a technology-based multinational conglomerate with 1998 revenues of S$5.8
billion/US $3.6 billion.
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