X Initiative Honors Applied Materials With Design-to-Manufacturing Catalyst Award
Tuesday June 8, 11:00 am ET
Consortium Celebrates Third Anniversary and Announces Newly Elected Steering Group
SAN DIEGO, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The X Initiative, a semiconductor design-chain consortium, today announced that Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT - News) is the recipient of the X Initiative's 2004 Design-to-Manufacturing Catalyst Award. The award was presented today in San Diego, Calif. at the X Initiative's Third Anniversary Open Forum, held in conjunction with the Design Automation Conference. The X Initiative steering group selected Applied Materials from its roster of more than 40 member companies for its significant contributions over the past year in developing advanced manufacturing proof points using the X Architecture. The newly elected members of the steering group for 2004-2005 were also announced during the forum.
Presenting the award to Applied Materials, Jan Willis, senior vice president of industry marketing at Cadence Design Systems, Inc. and X Initiative steering group facilitator, noted, "2004 is the year of first production chips for the X Architecture. The performance, power and cost benefits of the X Architecture are compelling to the entire design chain but it's required an unusual commitment to open collaboration from many companies to reach this milestone. Applied Materials has played an integral role in proving the manufacturability of the X Architecture designs, specifically for 90-nm and 65-nm copper/low-k chips-a critical step toward broad commercial adoption of the X Architecture. The X Initiative steering group is very pleased to recognize Applied Materials' contributions with this year's Design-to-Manufacturing Catalyst Award."
Applied Materials produced the first 90-nm X Architecture test chip in June 2003 and announced the successful fabrication of a 65-nm X Architecture test chip this February at the SPIE Microlithography Conference. These technology milestones also involved the collaborative efforts of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. for its X Architecture design expertise, Dai Nippon Printing for its mask making and Canon U.S.A. Inc. for its lithography equipment.
"We are honored to receive this award from the X Initiative for demonstrating the manufacturability and scalability of this innovative interconnect architecture using current tools and processes at the Maydan Technology Center (MTC)," said John T.C. Lee, general manager of Applied Materials' MTC. "We highly value our collaborative relationship with the design-chain community and the exceptional benefits it allows us to bring to our customers in helping to minimize risk and ensure compatibility for current and future chip designs."
Members of the newly elected steering group include Pallab Chatterjee, president and managing partner, SiliconMap, LLC; Kevin Cummings, director for advanced reticle technology, ASML; John Ford, vice president of marketing, Virtual Silicon Technology, Inc.; Aki Fujimura, CTO, new business incubation, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.; Jim Jordan, director, business development, DuPont Photomasks, Inc.; John T.C. Lee, general manager of Maydan Technology Center, Applied Materials, Inc.; Chris Rowen, president and CEO, Tensilica, Inc.; Takashi Yoshimori, technology executive SoC-design at Semiconductor Company, Toshiba Corporation; and Jan Willis, who returns as steering group facilitator.
Also announced were X Initiative steering group advisors, Dr. Andrew Kahng, professor of computer science engineering, and electrical and computer engineering, at the University of California at San Diego; Ken Rygler, president, Rygler & Associates, Inc. and founder of DuPont Photomasks, Inc.; and Dr. Michael Smayling, CTO and senior director of Maydan Technology Center, Applied Materials, Inc.
About Applied Materials
Applied Materials, Inc. is the largest supplier of equipment and services to the global semiconductor industry. Applied Materials' Web site is appliedmaterials.com
About the X Architecture
The X Architecture, the first production-worthy approach to the pervasive use of diagonal interconnect, reduces the total interconnect, or wiring, on a chip by more than 20 percent and via-counts by more than 30 percent, resulting in simultaneous improvements in chip performance, power and cost. For the past 20 years, chip design has been primarily based on the de facto industry standard "Manhattan" architecture, named for its right-angle interconnects resembling a city-street grid. The X Architecture rotates the primary direction of the interconnect in the fourth and fifth metal layers by 45 degrees from a Manhattan architecture. The new architecture maintains compatibility with existing cell libraries, memory cells, compilers and IP cores by preserving the Manhattan geometry of metal layers one through three.
About the X Initiative
The X Initiative, a group of leading companies from throughout the semiconductor industry, is chartered with accelerating the availability and fabrication of the X Architecture, a revolutionary interconnect architecture based on the pervasive use of diagonal routing. The X Initiative's five-year mission is to provide an independent source of education about the X Architecture, to facilitate support and fabrication of the X Architecture through the semiconductor industry design chain, and to survey usage of the X Architecture to track its adoption. Representing leaders spanning the entire design-to-silicon supply chain, X Initiative members include: Applied Materials, Inc.; ARM; Artisan Components, Inc.; ASML Netherlands B.V.; Cadence Design Systems, Inc.; Canon U.S.A. Inc.; Dai Nippon Printing (DNP); DuPont Photomasks, Inc.; Etec Systems, Inc., an Applied Materials, Inc. company; GDA Technologies, Inc.; HPL Technologies, Inc.; Hoya Corporation; IN2FAB Technology Ltd.; Infineon Technologies AG; JEOL, Ltd.; KLA-Tencor Corporation; Leica Microsystems AG; Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.; MicroArk Co. Ltd.; Monterey Design Systems, Inc.; Nikon Corporation; NuFlare Technology Inc.; PDF Solutions, Inc.; Photronics, Inc.; Prolific Inc.; RUBICAD Corporation; Sagantec; Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.; Silicon Logic Engineering, Inc.; SiliconMap, LLC.; Silicon Valley Research Inc.; STMicroelectronics; Sycon Design, Inc.; Tensilica, Inc.; Toppan Printing Co.; Toshiba Corporation; Trecenti Technologies, Inc.; TSMC; UMC; Virage Logic, Inc.; Virtual Silicon Technology, Inc.; and Zygo Corporation. Membership is open to all companies throughout the semiconductor supply chain. Materials can be found at www.xinitiative.org
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements (including, without limitation, information regarding semiconductor design, production and performance improvements resulting from the X Architecture, the compatibility of the X Architecture with current technology, the future success of X Architecture technology and the ability of certain of the X Initiative members to support the X Architecture) that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the results of X Initiative members and other events to differ materially from managements' current expectations. Actual results and event may differ materially due to a number of factors including, among others: future strategic decisions made by the X Initiative members; failure of the X Architecture to enable the production of designs that are feasible and competitive with current designs or future alternatives; future strategic decisions made by X Initiative members or others that inhibit the development of the X Architecture; demand for advanced semiconductors that are developed using the X Architecture; cost feasibility of the production of semiconductors designed using the X Architecture; and the rapid pace of technological change in the semiconductor industry. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties described in the most recent filings of the X Initiative members with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The X Initiative members, individually or collectively, assume no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this release.
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Source: X Initiative |
