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Teradyne Inc. (NYSE:TER) today announced at NEPCON West a single, common manufacturing test platform for in-circuit and functional test of printed circuit assemblies. The Spectrum Manufacturing Test Platform now spans the entire range of board-test applications, including classic in-circuit test (ICT), in-line process test, single-stage test (ICT plus functional), high-performance digital functional test, and depot-based diagnosis and repair. Spectrum also provides a flexible platform for addressing application-specific test requirements, such as ADSL line cards and modems. To achieve this "unified test environment," Teradyne has integrated and expanded its Spectrum product line, basing it on a single hardware backplane and a common test operating environment. Built around an Extended VXI backplane (originally designed for the Spectrum 8800-Series) and Teradyne's popular TestStudio Web-based ATE operating environment, the new Spectrum family offers a lower-cost manufacturing test platform that is flexible, efficient, scalable, and reusable. As part of the product-line expansion, Teradyne announced three new configurations of the Spectrum family, each targeted to a specific test application: the Spectrum 8950-Series ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) Manufacturing Test Platform, the Spectrum 9100-Series Manufacturing Functional Test Platform, and an in-line solution jointly engineered with Pematech-Rohwedder.

A Unified Test Environment

Teradyne's new unified test platform obsoletes traditional barriers that hinder test strategy flexibility. Historically, manufacturing process test and board functional test have been performed on different, independent test platforms. Teradyne's Spectrum Manufacturing Test Platform provides a unified hardware platform and software operating environment for manufacturing process test and board functional test. The new unified test environment provides manufacturers with lower test-development infrastructure costs. "Teradyne recognized a test industry need to eliminate the unnecessary costs generated by proprietary or closed architecture test platforms. Program incompatibility across platforms hinders line balancing, resulting in the need for additional capacity. The maintenance and spares inventory of multiple hardware platforms results in higher repair costs. Multiple platforms require multiple programming specialists or inefficient cross-training. Furthermore, specialized functional testers don't adapt efficiently to product design changes. The end result of an inflexible test platform is insufficient test capacity where it is needed most and excess test capabilities where they are needed least," said Craig Pynn, marketing manager of Teradyne's Assembly Test Division. Teradyne's Spectrum Manufacturing Test Platform design is flexible, efficient, scalable, and reusable to reduce costs. It's flexible because common industry standards such as VXI plug&play and Windows NT allow for easy expansion as test requirements change. Systems may be reconfigured with industry-standard hardware, instrumentation, and software to minimize operating and upgrade expenses. Spectrum is an efficient test platform because TestStudio, the Web-based application development environment, combined with the extended VXI backplane, create a common test environment. The commonality of the test environment is reflected in common training, maintenance, spares, and documentation, resulting in lower operational costs. The reusable code reduces development costs. The open architecture is scalable and may be configured for a wide range of test uses and lower configuration costs.

About Teradyne

Teradyne is the world's largest manufacturer of automatic test equipment (ATE) for the electronics industry. Products include systems to test semiconductor devices, printed circuit assemblies, telephone lines, computerized telephone systems, internet and intranet networks, and software. The company is also a leading supplier of high-performance connection systems used in the manufacture of electronics. Teradyne's extensive service network supports customers through a worldwide service and application engineering network, with technical centers located throughout Asia, Europe and North America.

The Assembly Test Division, located in Boston and Walnut Creek, California, serves circuit-board test customers with comprehensive capabilities in test and inspection. These test instruments and systems are used in commercial environments and in military/aerospace applications where reliability, time-to-market, and in-line process test are key to success. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Teradyne reported sales of approximately $1.5 billion in 1998 and had 6,800 employees worldwide.

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