Agilent 93000 SOC Series to Decrease PGC Program Development Time up to 50%; Minimizes Time-to-Market for its Customers

　　Taipei, Taiwan, April XX, 2002 -- Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced that Progate Group Corporation (PGC), the second largest SOC/ASIC design service provider in Taiwan, has selected the Agilent 93000 SOC Series test system for high-speed characterization of ASIC and IP designs for their digital consumer customers. PGC chose the Agilent 93000 platform for its flexibility and significant reduction in cost of test to meet customer requirements.

　　PGC’s SOC/ASIC designs range in level of complexity and with the Agilent 93000 platform’s flexibility, PGC will now be able to offer their customers all levels of test with one single scalable test platform. The Agilent 93000 SOC test platform offers the complete test capabilities needed for a variety of intellectual property, including high-speed, high pin-count, special memory, PLL, ADC, DAC, special I/O, Bluetooth and WLAN.

　　With the 93000 SOC test system and Agilent’s excellent consultation service, we are able provide professional verification and engineering service for our customers," said Fred Lai, general manager of PGC. “We recognize that SoC design trends are requiring higher chip integration, greater pin counts, faster speed, and more functional blocks. By utilizing the flexibility and versatility of Agilent 93000 test system, we are now able to greatly shorten our customer’s time-to-market, while significantly reducing their cost-of-test. Agilent's commitment to the 93000 gives us the confidence that this is the last test platform investment we will need to make for our IP and design service business.”

　　By using the Agilent 93000 platform for in-house characterization testing, PGC is now primed to meet its customers requirements and deliver next-generation technology,” said Tom Newsom, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s SOC Business Unit. “We are committed to working closely with PGC to continue to meet their needs for a scalable and flexible testing platform.”

Agilent 93000 SOC Series Provides Flexibility in a Single, Scalable Platform

　　The Agilent 93000 SOC Series provides the lowest cost of test available in a single, scalable platform. The system’s flexibility allows customers to apply the appropriate testing requirements for design, characterization and manufacturing of ICs. In addition, the Agilent 93000 SOC Series provides customers with the flexibility to test a broad range of applications. This results in higher system utilization and reduces the number of test systems required on the manufacturing floor. It also minimizes the number of platforms that require support, thereby lowering cost of ownership. For more information on Agilent’s semiconductor test systems, please visit the Web site at: www.agilent.com/see/semi-test-press.

About PGC

　　Established in 1991, PGC is dedicated in providing SOC/ASIC design service and production turnkey service. PGC has setup the branch in Silicon Valley of USA to aggressively expand business to this largest SOC/ASIC market in the world. PGC focuses on providing customer’s total solution on SOC/ASIC Design Turnkey Service, which include th eSOC design service and ARM CPU design solution in the frontend and ASIC Turnkey service in the backend. In addition, PGC also provides COT/Layout and MPW service. PGC’s process capability has covered from 0.18um process to 0.6um process. Currently, PGC is aggressively to develop 0.13um process technology in order to achieve more high-tech SOC design capability.

About Agilent Technologies

　　Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is a global technology leader in communications, electronics and life sciences. The company’s 39,000 employees serve customers in more than 120 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $8.4 billion in fiscal year 2001. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.