PRI Automation Introduces New Factory Connectivity Software
Encore! FAbuilder 6.0 Links Production Resources with Factory Management Software to Improve Overall Factory Effectiveness
SAN FRANCISCO, July 10 /CNW/ -- PRI Automation, Inc. (Nasdaq: PRIA - news), the global leader in advanced automation systems and software to the semiconductor industry, announced today at SEMICON West the availability of Encore! FAbuilder 6.0(TM), PRI's next generation factory connectivity software. FAbuilder provides an important link between production resources and factory management software to optimize the flow of information and improve overall factory effectiveness.
"Our customers are looking for ways to leverage their investment in expensive production resources and make their manufacturing environment more intelligent and productive," said Mitch Tyson, president and chief executive officer of PRI Automation. "Our goal is to develop solutions that make it easier for manufacturers to get access to their most important production data to improve the efficiency of their manufacturing environment by optimizing their production resources. Encore! FAbuilder 6.0 is a powerful new tool that bridges the gap between shop floor resources and factory management software to make the entire manufacturing operation more efficient."
"Encore! FAbuilder is a key component of our evolving factory management software strategy to provide a broad range of software solutions that give semiconductor manufacturers more control over their manufacturing environments," said Brent Brook-Allred, vice president and general manager of PRI's factory management software division. "We want to do for the flow of manufacturing data what we have already done for the flow of wafers; namely, provide seamless set of integrated software products to enhance the manufacturing capabilities of our customers. Pre-integrated solutions allow us to amortize integration costs and pass the savings directly to our customers."
Encore! FAbuilder 6.0 enhances user productivity by ushering in a new generation of simplification for development and management of reliable equipment connectivity and control solutions. FAbuilder addresses flexibility, openness, and ease of use issues that have plagued previous generation tools by elevating the task from complex programming to simple drag & drop of standard interface plug-ins. Encore! FAbuilder provides predefined integration plug-ins to PRI's Encore!® and PROMIS® factory management software solutions thereby eliminating the need for an additional cell control layer. Such ease of use speeds implementations and requires a smaller and less highly trained workforce thereby significantly reducing customer integration and support costs.
Encore! FAbuilder supports all of the latest industry communication standards (e.g., SEMI SECS/GEM/HSMS/VFEI) and is designed to provide the path of least resistance to accommodating non-standard communication interfaces as well. Encore! FAbuilder achieves this by creating custom plug- ins for any device capable of digital output. Encore! FAbuilder is currently in use in several high volume production fabs with proven integration to all of the leading manufacturing execution system (MES) software.
The power of Encore! FAbuilder 6.0 to link existing systems into a seamlessly coordinated whole is being showcased at SEMICON West 2000, the semiconductor industry's largest trade show being held in San Francisco from July 10-12.
About PRI Automation
PRI Automation, Inc., headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, is the leading global supplier of advanced factory automation systems and software to semiconductor industry. PRI provides a complete hardware and software solution that optimizes the flow of materials and information throughout the fab improving the productivity of semiconductor manufacturing. The company has thousands of systems installed at approximately one hundred locations throughout the world. For more information, visit PRI online at www.pria.com.
For further information
Michael J. Greeley of Stauch Vetromile & Mitchell, 401-438-0614, or michaelg@svmmarcom.com
or Jeffrey Nestel-Patt of PRI Automation, 978-670-4270, or jnestel-patt@pria.com |
