Consortium's Latest Addition Underscores Widespread European Support of the OPENSTAR Standard SAN DIEGO, Aug. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The Semiconductor Test Consortium, Inc. (STC), the leading proponent of worldwide adoption of the Open Semiconductor Test Architecture (OPENSTAR(R)) standard, today announced that Infineon Technologies AG (NYSE: IFX; FSE) of Munich, Germany, has joined the consortium's global roster. The welcome addition of this top chipmaker marks yet another milestone for the STC, whose European membership now comprises 13 companies -- 28 percent of the total corporate membership. These members are integral to the consortium's recent evolution into a fully functioning ecosystem of worldwide semiconductor industry leaders, and further validate European support of the STC's ability to create and implement a truly open, common test architecture for vendors throughout the automated test equipment (ATE) sector. "Infineon has a wide product portfolio ranging from discretes to power, automotive to RF, and mixed-signal ICs," explained Klaus Luther, Infineon's senior director of corporate test technology and STC co-vice chairman. "We count on the open platform concept to enable a higher degree of flexibility of our assets as well as better re-use of the competencies of our test engineers across several applications and product generations. It is Infineon's intention to eliminate redundant R&D expenses, such as switching cost by architecture, along with interface and software convergence of our test solutions." STC Secretary and Administrator Bob Helsel added, "Having prominent European companies such as Infineon join our existing members further strengthens the burgeoning OPENSTAR ecosystem. The STC values the strength and knowledge base that these international companies bring to the consortium. We look forward to their future contributions and leadership as we continue to drive open hardware, software and interface standards that provide significant economic and infrastructural benefits associated with the longevity and scalability of the open architecture defined by the STC." The next STC European general meeting will be held September 19 in Munich, Germany. The next U.S. STC meeting is scheduled for August 15-16 in Boston, Mass. Designed to enable open-architecture test solutions that offer true hardware and software interoperability with unparalleled technical and economic benefits, the OPENSTAR platform is now supported by a total of 86 global members, consisting of semiconductor, equipment and instrumentation companies, universities, standard test interference language (STIL) users, and individuals. With its STC-outlined standard specifications, the architecture is accessible to all test-product vendors, enabling them to offer best-in-class, fully OPENSTAR-certified test solutions. In addition, the highly scalable and flexible OPENSTAR platform provides inherent extendibility in performance to meet emerging test requirements. About the Semiconductor Test Consortium The Semiconductor Test Consortium was founded in 2003 to develop a common test architecture that is completely open, documented and supported via solutions available from all ATE vendors. Open to all companies throughout the semiconductor supply chain with a vested interest in the test sector, the consortium is focused on the following goals: driving the direction of OPENSTAR; publishing the architecture and providing training programs and workshops to ensure it is truly open; and defining and managing validation procedures to ensure full vendor interoperability. Today, 47 semiconductor, equipment and instrumentation companies worldwide and 27 universities in Europe, Japan, China and the United States, in addition to eight STIL users and four individuals support the STC. More information can be found at http://www.semitest.org/. NOTE: OPENSTAR is a registered trademark of the Semiconductor Test Consortium. DATASOURCE: Semiconductor Test Consortium CONTACT: Bob Helsel of Semiconductor Test Consortium, +1-303-652-1311, or ; or Ellen Van Etten of MCA, +1-650-968-8900, or , for Semiconductor Test Consortium Web site: http://www.semitest.org/

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