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Technology Stocks : PRI Automation (PRIA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: orkrious who wrote (934)	7/7/2000 9:15:42 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1214

PRI Automation Rated New 'Buy' at Banc of America 7/7/00 5:05:00 AM Source: Bloomberg News Princeton, New Jersey, July 7 (Bloomberg Data) -- PRI Automation Inc. (PRIA US) was rated new ''buy'' in new coverage by analyst Mark F Fitzgerald at Banc of America Securities. The 12-month target price is $72.00 per share.

To: orkrious who wrote (934)	7/10/2000 4:33:52 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1214

"Severe shortage" of foundry capacity seen by 2003, despite rapid expansion Semiconductor Business News (07/10/00, 03:51:27 PM EDT) PHOENIX-Even though dedicated foundries are expected to more than double their capacity over the next couple of years, they could end up with a "severe shortage" of capacity by 2003. And it could come even sooner in some product categories, according to a new study by Semico Research Corp. here. The Phoenix market researcher estimates that dedicated foundries plan to increase their global wafer capacity by 50% this year and another 50% by 2002. Historically, dedicated foundries get most of their business from the fabless semiconductor companies. Because of a proliferation of these fabless suppliers, foundries such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., experienced nearly a 10-fold growth from 1991 to 1999. This growth is continuing, Semico points out. Wafer demand from fabless companies isgrowing more than 40% so far this year over 1999. Companies such as Altera, Xilinx, Sandisk, and Silicon Storage Technologies are experiencing explosive growth due to growing digital consumer and communications markets, the market researcher points out. Despite this growth, fabless companies still represent less than 20% of the total global semiconductor market, Semico points out. Today, the foundries are getting most of their growth from the top tier chip companies, the so-called integrated device manufacturers (IDMs). A good many of these IDMs-including Lucent Technologies, LSI Logic, Motorola, and National Semiconductor-increasingly are making foundries a key part of their manufacturing strategies. They are doing this to reduce their own exposure to risk, increase their manufacturing flexibility, and even to keep up with leading edge process technology. Also, after cutting back their capital spending during the 1998 downturn, many companies are now turning to foundries to make up for shortages in capacity for certain booming products. As Semico points out, as the overall industry gears up for a year of more than 30% growth, the increased use of foundries is becoming a need rather than just an option.

To: orkrious who wrote (934)	7/10/2000 6:48:11 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 1214

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