Sun Microsystems Purchases LogicVision's Embedded ATE for Corporate-Wide Use; icBIST To Address At-Speed Test and Diagnostic Needs Throughout Product Life Cycle

Business Wire, July 9, 1998

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 9, 1998--LogicVision, Inc., the leader in embedded ATE technology for complex integrated circuits (ICs) and systems, announced today that Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW) has become a leading customer of its icBIST(tm) product.

Striving to reduce at-speed test development time, engineering resources and test costs for high-performance products, Sun has made a corporate-wide purchase of icBIST, that establishes the critical role of embedded ATE in very deep sub-micron chips and systems.

By leveraging existing methods and tools in design, Sun is incorporating embedded ATE in their ASIC design cycle. Once designed into the ASIC, embedded ATE delivers high fault coverage test at application speeds for the entire life of the ASIC. Sun can use the same embedded ATE to test the ASIC on the chip tester, board tester, during system test in the factory and at customers' sites.

"Testing high-performance products and diagnosing performance-related failures are extremely time consuming and costly today," said Richard Lee, Advanced Test Technology manager at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "To remain competitive, we must reduce test development time and contain test equipment costs. At the same time, we must deliver high quality products without compromise. LogicVision's icBIST met these needs by delivering high-fault coverage at-speed test."

As a leading supplier of systems in the workstation market, Sun Microsystems' requirements are both diverse and stringent. The pursuit of higher quality at lower cost is driving the deployment of LogicVision's embedded ATE technology across various product segments from desktop workstations to high-end servers. As the company continues to push the speed boundaries with new technologies, icBIST will scale to meet Sun's at-speed test requirements.

"LogicVision's icBIST brings together a set of solutions for chip, board and system-level test that effectively addresses many of the development, manufacturing and field test problems that arise when designing highly scalable leading-edge systems," said John Braden, manager of Design for Test and Diagnostics, Suns Microsystems, Inc. "The ability to reuse these tests at all levels of product assembly is superior to ATE-based in-circuit test when trying to quickly identify and configure around failures."

"We are extremely proud that a company such as Sun Microsystems finds our products critical to its on-going success," said Vinod Agarwal, LogicVision president and CEO. "Embedded ATE technology has now become a mainstream solution. It is the only viable approach for at-speed testing of very deep sub-micron chips and the systems using these chips. With literally hundreds of different chips in design or production with LogicVision's icBIST solution, customers are turning to icBIST with confidence to save millions of dollars in test development costs, and still maintain product excellence."

About icBIST

icBIST is the industry's first embedded ATE solution for at-speed test and diagnostics of digital and mixed-signal ASICs, system-on-a-chips (SOCs) and systems. icBIST is the only test solution to offer a scalable and reusable test strategy that delivers significant reductions in test development time and manufacturing test costs for high-performance products based on very deep sub-micron (VDSM) technology (0.35 micron or less). Customer use and hardware success have clearly demonstrated that LogicVision's icBIST delivers an effective embedded ATE solution for products that depend on high-speed, million-gate VDSM designs.

About LogicVision

LogicVision is the leading supplier of embedded ATE solutions to the electronics industry worldwide. Embedded ATE provides the most complete and cost-effective test and diagnostic solution for companies designing and manufacturing highly complex chips and systems. The solution combines patented intellectual property (IP) circuit designs with powerful test automation software. The results are test and diagnostic functions embedded on chip to achieve lower-cost test and at-speed, re-usable tests for use at each level of integration, from chip to system. With the ability to test many functions, including logic, memory, mixed signal and interconnects, LogicVision offers customers the most complete embedded ATE solution available on the market. LogicVision has licensed its embedded ATE technology to major companies worldwide in the computer, communications, networking, military/aeronautics and semiconductor industries.

LogicVision is headquartered in San Jose, California; with sales and support offices in Waltham, Massachusetts; Richardson, Texas; and Fareham, United Kingdom. Distribution partner Pacific Design, Inc. provides sales and support for LogicVision products in Japan. The company also has a research and development facility in Ottawa, Ontario.

For more information contact LogicVision, Inc., 101 Metro Drive, Third Floor, San Jose, California, 95110, USA. Telephone 408/453-0146 or 888/584-2478; fax 408/467-1180; email: info@logicvision.com. LogicVision can be reached on the Internet at www.logicvision.com.