Washington, D.C. -- November 3, 1997 -- Teradyne, Inc. announced that it has received an order from Textron Systems, Inc. for a SpectrumTM 8800-Series VXI manufacturing test platform with an integrated Teradyne M910 VXI Digital Test Instrument. The value of the order was not disclosed. The system will be installed later this year at Textron Systems' manufacturing facility in Wilmington, Massachusetts, where it will be used to test printed wiring assemblies used in the company's electronics products. The order was announced by Joe Wrinn, General Manager of Teradyne's Assembly Test Division in Walnut Creek, California.

"Improving the fault coverage of our board test process is key in improving our product reliability," said Steven Conte, Textron Systems senior test equipment design engineer. "The Spectrum system will enable us to improve our production process in real time as we adopt new board designs incorporating advanced digital technologies. Among the systems we evaluated, the Spectrum is the only one that offers an integrated Digital Test Instrument."

Steven Conte noted that the Spectrum's increased fault coverage does not result in higher test cost. "Because the Spectrum uses an open architecture, based on industry standards, it provides the lowest-cost test solution and the greatest flexibility in implementing evolving test strategies," he said.

Teradyne's Spectrum 8800 Series is the first board test system built around a fully-integrated VXI system architecture for full-spectrum in-circuit and board functional test. Its open hardware and software architecture permits customers to integrate specialized test capabilities based on the VXI standard. Launched in November 1996, Spectrum has generated orders for more than 80 test systems to date. In addition to Textron Systems, Spectrum customers include Acculogic, AIL Systems, Allen Bradley, Avex, Digital, DSC Communications, Ford Electronics, Lucent Technologies, Medrad, Nortel, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, Spectrian, Symbol Technologies, Toshiba, Vanso Electronics, and Wireless Access in North America; Carl Zeiss, Donnelly Electronics, Ericsson Saab Avionics, Lucent, OCD Printing Systems, Siemens, and Swaptronics in Europe; and Landrex and Mitac in Taiwan.

The M910, produced by Teradyne's Assembly Test Division in Boston, is a high-performance C-size VXI instrument for advanced digital functional test at data rates up to 25 MHz. The M910 extends the performance of the Spectrum system for performing functional test of advanced microcontroller, microprocessor, and DSP-based boards. Like the Spectrum system, the M910 uses an industry-standard VXIplug&play Windows NT framework software driver and hard-ware that is fully compliant with VXI-C interface standards.

"This is a powerful proof of the benefits of open standards for manufacturing test," said Wrinn. "With the M910 available as an option on the Spectrum, we can now offer our customers high-performance digital functional test as part of our VXI manufacturing test platform."

Teradyne is a leading manufacturer of automatic test equipment and connection systems for the electronics and telecommunications industries, with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. The Spectrum 8800-Series systems are produced by the Assembly Test Division in Walnut Creek, California. That division also produces other circuit board test and inspection equipment for the commercial board-test market. Teradyne's site on the World Wide Web is at www.teradyne.com. Teradyne is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (Symbol: TER). Sales in the first three quarters of 1997 were approximately $875 million.

Textron Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Textron, Inc., is a leading supplier of advanced systems, components, and materials for use in defense, aerospace, automotive and industrial applications. Textron Systems is an ISO9001 registered manufacturer. Textron (NYSE:TXT) is a $9.3 billion, global, multi-industry company with market-leading operations in Aircraft, Automotive, Industrial and Finance.

Spectrum is a trademark of Teradyne, Inc.