BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2001--Teradyne, Inc. (NYSE:TER) announced today that ASE Test, a leading provider of testing services, has purchased multiple Catalyst Tiger test systems. Tiger, which is an extension of the industry-leading Catalyst system-on-a-chip (SOC) tester family, will test the varied and complex devices manufactured by ASE Test's large customer base. With 1024 digital pins, integrated analog, and I/O rates to 1.6 Gbps, Tiger is the first mixed-signal VLSI test system. ASE Test's multiple Tigers add to the company's extensive installed base of Catalyst and A5 Family testers.

The Catalyst Family defines SOC test with a unique combination of parallel processing architecture and integrated analog from DC audio to microwave, for high throughput and SOC digital, combining functional, scan, and memory test. Tiger extends Catalyst into high speed and high pin count applications, like networking, chipsets, and parallel SOC test.

"Even as technologies rapidly evolve Teradyne is ready with test solutions that enable us to bring devices to market first. Teradyne's Tiger provides the broad applications we require and achieves the SOC data rate, test economics, and high performance our customers' devices demand," said Raymond Lo, President of ASE Test.

"As data speeds increase and devices become more integrated," said Jeff Schneider, Teradyne, Marketing Manager, "Tiger performs with greater speed and delivers the digital coverage required for today's highly integrated devices. Whether it's raw data rates or throughput, Tiger defines what high performance SOC test means. ASE Test's decision to extend its powerful test capability with Teradyne's Tiger demonstrates how essential Tiger is for anticipating market needs and getting devices to market first," continued Schneider.

About Catalyst

Catalyst dominates the SOC market with test capabilities for DSL, wireless, microwave, and power management applications. With more than 4000 individual users worldwide, Catalyst's IMAGE(TM) programming system is the most widely used ATE software environment. Catalyst currently offers wireless device, quad-site testing, providing the best test economics and most complete array of analog instrumentation. When a cell call is placed, or a PC, printer, scanner, pager, or a DVD is utilized, Catalyst tested ICs make it happen.

About Tiger

Catalyst Tiger is the first over 1 Gbps SOC test system. Extending the Catalyst family, Tiger shares the same high throughput zero-time DSP architecture, IMAGE(TM) software, and state-of-the-art analog instruments and extends the Catalyst family to 1024 digital pins. Powered by breakthrough Silicon Germanium (SiGe) technology, Tiger sets a new digital performance standard with full I/O data rates to 1.6 Gbps while retaining the timing flexibility at top speed demanded by chipset and network processing applications.

About ASE Test

ASE Test Limited (Nasdaq Symbol: ASTSF) is the world's largest independent provider of semiconductor testing services. ASE Test provides IC packaging and testing services to semiconductor companies. In addition to testing operations in Taiwan, the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore, the Company also maintains packaging and testing operations in Malaysia, and limited packaging operations in the United States. The Company plans to continue to expand its customer base and geographic presence. The Company provides its customers with a complete range of IC testing service, which includes front-end engineering testing, wafer probing, which consists of inspecting and testing silicon wafers for defects prior to packaging, final testing of logic, mixed-signal and memory functions of packaged ICs, and other related value-added services. ASE Test's World Wide Web address is www.asetest.com.tw

About Teradyne

Teradyne is the world's largest supplier of automatic test equipment and related software for the electronics and telecommunications industries and a leading supplier of high-performance backplane assemblies and connectors. 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 reported sales over $3 billion in 2000 and currently has about 10,000 employees worldwide. Teradyne's World Wide Web address is www.teradyne.com

IMAGE is a trademark of Teradyne, Inc.