PDF Solutions® Rolls Out Industry's First DFM Characterization Vehicle® Yield Modeling Product for Mainstream Semiconductor Companies and Foundries; CV® Test Chips Produce Data for DFM Solutions From Cadence and Magma

Business Wire, July 24, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO -- PDF Solutions(R), Inc. (NASDAQ:PDFS) introduced its new design-for-manufacturing (DFM) Characterization Vehicle(R) (CV) Yield Modeling product. PDF Solutions provides the world's most advanced technology for measuring semiconductor fab yield and modeling the process-design interactions that affect it. Before now, this technology was available only to companies that engaged in a full PDF Solutions Integrated Yield Ramp (IYR) engagement, and then only on the node of that specific ramp. The new CV Yield Modeling product now enables any company to characterize each of its processes and to produce proven, complete yield models designed to be input to the integrated circuit (IC) implementation products of Cadence(R) Design Systems (NASDAQ:CDNS) and Magma(R) Design Automation (NASDAQ:LAVA). PDF Solutions helps the world's semiconductor companies increase the manufacturability and yield of ICs at the most advanced process nodes.

In addition to the new DFM CV Yield Modeling product, PDF Solutions introduced its Industry Typical Yield Model Service for qualified customers of Cadence and Magma. In this service, the PDF Solutions DFM team collects information from a customer -- technology node, style, maturity and more -- to build a yield model based on PDF Solutions' vast industry knowledge and expertise. The Industry Typical Yield Modeling enables fabless semiconductor companies and integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) to leverage immediately the Cadence and Magma DFM offerings. Now, for the first time ever, these companies can gain time-to-market and time-to-profit benefits from PDF Solutions' technology before engaging in a comprehensive PDF Solutions IYR engagement. The offering is designed to enable customers to prove their design flows and get initial results, producing models that are functionally compatible with full yield models from PDF Solutions. This makes them plug-and-play ready when calibrated, true-silicon models are acquired from either a PDF Solutions DFM CV or a complete IYR engagement.

"Our strategy is to drive proliferation of design-for-yield across the mainstream semiconductor industry," said PDF Solutions' president and CEO, John Kibarian. "PDF Solutions is the yield enhancement partner of the world's top IC makers working at the most advanced technology levels. Now, any design customer can take advantage of our yield modeling for DFM solutions and gain the benefits of higher yield and faster time to market."

Jim Miller, executive vice-president of the Products and Technologies Organization at Cadence Design Systems, said, "The new yield modeling products offered by PDF will work seamlessly with today's Encounter platform to improve design-specific yield for mainstream semiconductor customers. Yield improvement is a key source of differentiation for fabless semiconductor companies and Cadence is pleased to work with PDF to make these capabilities more readily available."

Kam Kittrell, general manager of Magma's Design Implementation Business Unit, said, "We have been working in partnership with PDF Solutions for two years and have proven systems installed with several of its IDM customers. These new services from PDF will accelerate adoption of Magma's Blast Yield(TM) DFM optimization solution for mainstream IC designs. The pressures of time to market and profitability are never ending for semiconductor and systems companies, especially for those selling into the consumer electronics market. PDF Solutions' new DFM CV service gives these companies access to proven yield data to achieve greater competitive advantage."

About the New DFM CV Yield Modeling Product from PDF Solutions

With the new PDF Solutions DFM CV test chips, a customer would receive a license to use patented technology from PDF Solutions, including a CV test chip designed specifically for its process. A PDF Solutions Services' Team would then measure the CV test chip and process the data to create a yield model with accurate silicon characterization of the manufacturing process at the customer's specific fab.

By comparison, the comprehensive PDF Solutions' IYR engagement features patented methodology and technology applied by PDF Solutions' cross-functional service teams to deliver yield, performance, and reliability improvements at any stage of IC manufacturing. The IYR includes a complete CV(R) Infrastructure with CV(R)test chips, pdFasTest(R) hardware, pdCV(TM) and Circuit Surfer(R) software, plus dP-shotMAP(TM) and dP-probeMAP(TM) software for optimizing lithography shot maps and probe maps within the PDF Solutions' dataPOWER(TM) platform, and the pDfx(TM) design environment for optimizing yield, performance, power, and area trade-offs within a design flow. Many of the manufacturing and product engineers at PDF Solutions' customer companies also employ PDF Solutions dataPOWER(TM) for analyzing and managing yield data.

About PDF Solutions

PDF Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDFS) is the leading provider of process-design integration technologies and services for manufacturing integrated circuits (ICs). PDF Solutions enables semiconductor companies to create IC designs that can be more easily manufactured using manufacturing processes that are more capable. By simulating deep sub-micron product and process interactions, the PDF solution offers clients reduced time to market, increased IC yield and performance, and enhanced product reliability and profitability. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., PDF Solutions operates worldwide with additional offices in China, Europe, and Japan. For the company's latest news and information, visit http://www.pdf.com/.>