AMD Stream Processor First to Break 1 Teraflop Barrier

—Next-generation AMD FireStream™ 9250 processor accelerates scientific and engineering calculations, efficiently delivering supercomputer performance at up to eight gigaflops-per-watt —

DRESDEN, Germany -- June 16, 2008 --At the International Supercomputing Conference, AMD (NYSE:AMD) today introduced its next-generation stream processor, the AMD FireStream™ 9250, specifically designed to accelerate critical algorithms in high-performance computing (HPC), mainstream and consumer applications. Leveraging the GPU design expertise of AMD’s Graphics Product Group, AMD FireStream 9250 breaks the one teraflop barrier for single precision performance. It occupies a single PCI slot, for unmatched density and with power consumption of less than 150 watts, the AMD FireStream 9250 delivers an unprecedented rate of performance per watt efficiency with up to eight gigaflops per watt.

Customers can leverage AMD’s latest FireStream offering to run critical workloads such as financial analysis or seismic processing dramatically faster than with CPU alone, helping them to address more complex problems and achieve faster results. For example, developers are reporting up to a 55x performance increase on financial analysis codes as compared to processing on the CPU alone, which supports their efforts to make better and faster decisions. Additionally, the use of flexible GPU technology rather than custom accelerators assists those creating application-specific systems to enhance and maintain their solutions easily.

From: AMD News

Winbond Accepts SiGlaz Intelligent Defect Analysis Software

IDA Enterprise Edition includes additional modules for large scale database management and real-time process monitoring

/HiTech PR News/ - SANTA CLARA, CA, March 28, 2008 - SiGlaz, a world leader in defect spatial signature analysis (SSA) software, today announced that its initial installation of Intelligent Defect Analysis (IDA) Enterprise Edition has been accepted by Winbond Electronics Corporation, a leading semiconductor manufacturer based in Taiwan. IDA software automatically analyzes the spatial distribution of defects on the wafer, using its patented algorithms, and notifies the user when it recognizes a signature. Defect spatial signatures may result from process excursions or from failures in process equipment.

IDA Enterprise Edition, which operates on a Microsoft Windows-based server with .NET framework and web service architecture, is compatible with all leading database software, including Microsoft SQL Server. It provides a fab-wide repository for signature analysis results and the ability to access those results in real time and from remote locations. A new IDA module, called Real Time Process Monitor, allows the user to run concurrent process control rules and generate alarms, refreshing the data hourly, daily or weekly. Another new module, called IDA Navigator, provides trend analysis capability and ad hoc queries of analysis results, and it allows the user to build, set and save process control rules and alarms.

"The Enterprise Edition of IDA provides a major benefit to our fab, in terms of analyzing large volumes of production defect data," according to a Winbond spokesperson. "Not only does IDA notify the engineer when it identifies a defect signature, the engineer can quickly access the IDA database from any location and view all of the data in the affected lots. In addition, IDA Auto-Learn capability and Layer Repeater Analysis enable us to identify new signatures that were not previously trained into the signature library."

SiGlaz IDA software automatically classifies defects associated with a spatial signature. When the performance of the software is compared to a human expert, the average performance of classification has been above 90%.

Victor Luu, SiGlaz President and CEO said, "We are very excited about our new software platform. IDA Enterprise Edition provides an upgrade path for our users to expand the utility and application of SSA in the fab. This new platform will be the foundation for other new SiGlaz products in the development pipeline that will soon allow users to correlate defect signatures with electrical test results, and then with other metrology data."

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