Advantest Further Accelerates Momentum In The SoC Test Market With Another Key Customer Win

Major Communications Company Selects T2000 System to Test Next-generation SoCs

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—March 22, 2005—Advantest Corporation (TSE 6857, NYSE: ATE), the world's largest provider of test equipment to the global semiconductor industry and a leading supplier of system-on-chip (SoC) test systems, today announced another strategic win for its T2000 SoC Test Platform. This latest order, stemming from a leading global communications company, further expands the breadth and depth of Advantest's served markets in the burgeoning SoC arena.

According to G. Dan Hutcheson, CEO of VLSI Research Inc, Advantest has emerged as one of the strongest players in SoC test. The company's revenues from SOC testers grew well over 100% annually during the last two years, outpacing the overall growth of the SOC tester market. "Such strong growth can be attributed to the rapid adoption of Advantest's T2000 OPENSTAR®-compliant platform—the industry's first test system built using open standards that were created for customers, by customers. This win underscores the company's advancement into the communications device sector, while its growth continues to escalate within the microprocessor, logic and consumer device market segments," Hutcheson noted.

Advantest reports that its newest customer selected the T2000 based on the tester's ability to meet the complex test requirements of high-value devices used for mission-critical applications. Of particular interest was the T2000's unique modular design, with its unprecedented degree of flexibility and extendibility for future-generation devices. This includes the ability to incorporate new modules specifically designed to support customers' application-specific requirements.

"The wave of rising customer confidence in our T2000 test platform is both rewarding and telling, as it reveals the increased demand for high-performance testers that can lower manufacturers' cost of ownership and accommodate their next-generation requirements," said Dennis Malloy, vice president of sales for Advantest America. "This customer is no exception—they need a future-focused test platform that can grow with their test needs, while meeting and exceeding the performance, reliability and cost-effectiveness standards that customers have come to expect from Advantest over the past 50 years."

Advantest began selling its T2000 test platform for high-end SoC devices, including high-performance microprocessors and high-speed communications devices, in October 2003. Since the test platform's introduction, Advantest has expanded the versatility of the T2000 test platform to employ a variety of consumer product applications in order to accommodate the constant demand for cost reduction in low- and mid-range SoC devices. The T2000 test platform is the world's first to be certified compliant with the OPENSTAR standard. Its most significant feature is the flexibility made possible by the open-architecture platform. Previously, new test systems had to be deployed for each new generation of devices, but now the mainframe and test head can be combined with other OPENSTAR-compliant modules from Advantest or other companies to optimize configurations that meet demands for device performance and cost.

About Advantest
Advantest Corporation is the world's largest supplier of automatic test equipment to the semiconductor industry. A global company, Advantest's SoC, logic, memory, mixed-signal and RF testers and device handlers are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor fabrication lines in the world. Founded in Japan in 1954, Advantest established its North American subsidiary in 1982 and its European subsidiary in 1984. More information is available at www.advantest.com.