Wednesday, February 12, 2003

FastRamp Expands Test Capabilities in San Diego Facility with Agilent Technologies 93000 SOC Test System

Agilent 93000 to test FastRamp's high-speed communication, wireless and digital consumer devices

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 12, 2003. Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced that FastRamp Test Services Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ST Assembly Test Services Ltd. (STATS -- NNM: STTS and SGX: ST Assembly), is expanding the test capabilities of FastRamp's new San Diego, Calif. test facility with the Agilent 93000 SOC Series test system. This will enable FastRamp's customers greater access to Agilent's SOC tester, which performs development, characterization and production test on a wide variety of high-speed communication, wireless and digital consumer devices.

"FastRamp's mission in the U.S. is to provide development settings that match our elite-class production test facilities in Singapore," said Mark Kelley, general manager of FastRamp. "The San Diego area is a hub for many wireless and communications companies and we are focused on supporting their high-end test requirements. Once the test programs are developed, our customers can easily transfer their volume production to the installed base of Agilent 93000 test systems at our Singapore facility."

The Agilent 93000 increases FastRamp's capabilities to test a wider variety of high-performance device types for several important growth markets. This particular model of the Agilent 93000 is configured with four NP2500 cards, which enable an industry-leading tester performance of 2.5 Gb/s for computational and communications applications, including high-speed interconnects and network processors. FastRamp's new Agilent tester also comes equipped with a 1 GHz, 12-bit digitizer, which enables the Agilent 93000 to test high-frequency mixed-signal devices destined for consumer applications like DVD players and set-top boxes. The Agilent 93000 ensures that FastRamp has the performance headroom and tester capacity necessary to serve their customers in these growing markets.

"FastRamp and Agilent both understand that flexibility is key to any service or product created for the fabless semiconductor industry," said Tom Newsom, vice president and general manager of Agilent's SOC Business Unit. "The Agilent 93000's performance and versatility make it an ideal SOC test platform to serve fabless IC companies. In addition, the platform's unique tester architecture enables a multitude of techniques for reducing cost of test, including concurrent test and multi-site test."


About the Agilent 93000 SOC Series

The Agilent 93000 SOC Series is the industry's fastest growing, lowest cost single, scalable platform with over 480 installed systems worldwide. The Agilent 93000 SOC Series is designed to meet both the demanding performance and cost challenges of SOC testing. Models are configured to span the widest range of applications that may require ultra-high-speed digital data rates, up to 10 Gb/s, and the broadest range of mixed-signal and RF capabilities. With this range of capabilities, the 93000 SOC Series is the first choice for SCMs and the preference for high-volume manufacturing. For more information visit www.agilent.com/see/atenews .


About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is a global technology leader in communications, electronics and life sciences. The company's 35,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $6 billion in fiscal year 2002. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com .


Source: Agilent