BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 14, 2000-- An engineering team at Teradyne (NYSE:TER) has been selected as the corporate recipient of Design News' annual Engineering Quality Award. The award will be presented to team leader, Eric Truebenbach of Teradyne's Assembly Test Division (ATD) in recognition of quality processes used in the design, manufacturing, and support of the M9- Series of Digital Test. Past award recipients are individuals representing design teams from Motorola, Ford, Xerox and BOSE.

"This award is given annually to a company that best demonstrates that engineering design leads to major gains in product quality," said Design News' Chief Editor, Paul Teague. "The editors surveyed hundreds of designs from companies, and were convinced that Teradyne's stellar reputation and corporate focus on quality deserved the award."

"Teradyne's ten-year commitment to its Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy and its new Revolutionizing Product Development (RPD) process were key elements in the M9 project's success," said Eric Truebenbach accepting the award on behalf of the engineering team.

The award will be presented today in Chicago during the 13th annual Design Engineering Achievement Awards Banquet. Held in conjunction with the National Design Engineering Show and Conference, the award is presented annually to an individual representing a single company that exhibits outstanding product quality through design and, to a lesser degree, through manufacturing. The award includes a $20,000 scholarship grant, which will be donated to the Electrical Engineering Department at Tufts University, Truebenbach's alma mater.

About M9-Series

The M9-Series Digital Test Instrument (DTI) is a high performance instrument used in Automatic Test Systems (ATE) to measure and diagnose circuit board and subsystem performance. The M9-Series DTI is most widely used in ATE deployed by military branches for servicing electronic modules used in avionics and weapons systems. Deployed by the US Navy in its CASS program with more than 400 systems installed, the DTI has been a key to significant cost savings for the Navy compared to custom-designed ATE used in the past. It The M9-Series DTI has also been adopted by the US Army for a number of its IFTE ATE systems, and by the Marine Corps for use in its TETS ATE program.

The M9-series is the first Teradyne product designed from start to finish using the Revolutionizing Product Development (RPD) design process. Now being employed through all of Teradyne's product divisions, RPD is based on concepts outlined in a book of the same title by Steven Wheelwright and Kim Clark (New York, The Free Press, 1992). Customized for Teradyne, "RPD brings a process orientation to the two key steps of product design. The first is strategic: "'Doing the right things," by listening to customers, anticipating their needs and delivering the appropriate product at the appropriate time. The second step focuses on the design discipline itself, "'doing things right,'" explained Executive Vice President and RPD's main sponsor, Ed Rogas.

The Design News award is only the latest recognition of the quality and efficacy of the M9-series design effort. In 1999, Teradyne received the Most Valued Supplier award from ManTech, Inc., Teradyne's largest M910 customer, for the quality, on-time delivery, and customer service. In addition, numerous papers and articles have been published on the M910 design and joint integration effort with Teradyne customers.

About Design News

For over 50 years old, Design News has been "America's Best-Read Design Engineering Magazine" with a circulation of over 180,000. It covers the latest tools, components, and materials used in mechanical and electromechanical design of a broad range of products.

Articles feature successful engineering projects and new technologies that will spark ideas and assist readers in the design of new products. All articles are written by a staff of editors many of whom are engineers themselves. Design News is the winner of 5 Folio magazine "Editorial Excellence" awards as the top engineering magazine in the U.S.. The annual Schneeberger Quality Award is sponsored by Schneeberger Company, Bedford, Massachusetts, which also provides the scholarship money.

About Teradyne

Teradyne, Inc. (NYSE: TER) is the world's leading automatic test equipment company for the electronics, communications and software industries. Its products and services address the test requirements of a broad range of semiconductors, electronic assemblies, telephone access network and software applications. Teradyne is also a leading supplier of high-performance backplane and interconnect systems for the electronics and communications industries. Teradyne supports its products through an extensive service and applications engineering network, with technical centers located throughout the United States, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Teradyne had 1999 sales of $1.79 billion and currently employs about 7500 people worldwide.