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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials

AMAT 339.29

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1:16 PM EST

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To: Ian@SI who wrote (20493)	6/17/1998 1:13:00 PM
From: Katherine Derbyshire	Read Replies (2) of 70976

I think you're missing my point, probably because I don't think I've actually made it.... My point is that a lot of fab automation software uses dates to track things like maintenance intervals, cycle time, and things like that. Some of this software may treat "00" as an invalid date, and may or may not have robust handling for invalid dates. The consequences of poor handling of invalid dates are potentially severe. Probably nothing life-threatening, but there is a possibility of shutting either individual tools or entire fabs down for some period of time. If process tool Y2K problems shut down fabs for extended periods, fab owners will demand compensation, which could affect the tool supplier's bottom line. As individual tools have grown more intelligent, they have developed a vulnerability to this kind of error. Since process tools are much more complex than elevators, both the potential problems and possible workarounds are also likely to be more complex. My concern arises because AMAT's Y2K warning demonstrates no awareness whatsoever of fab floor issues, but only of back office potential problems (billing, accounting, etc.). Katherine

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