Comit launches industry's first full-speed, fault accumulative memory BIST software tool for improved SoC device yields

Fiesta® CMBT enables real-time testing and generates repair fuse maps for embedded memories

Santa Clara, California - April 1, 2003- Comit Systems, a turnkey contract engineering service provider, today introduced its Fiesta® CMBT Memory BIST (built-in self-test) software tool. This newest addition to Comit's proven line of Fiesta solutions is the industry's first memory BIST tool to provide both full-speed and fault-accumulative testing of system-on-chip (SoC) devices with repairable embedded memories. The company estimates that the new tool, shipping now, can improve yields and help achieve up to 50 percent reduction in test and repair costs, while expediting time to market.

The burden of testing embedded memory on SoCs and other complex devices falls primarily on the BIST logic, which must precisely identify memory failures, determine whether the memory is repairable, and automatically generate a repair fuse map to indicate failed memory locations. To perform all these functions, the BIST logic must be highly sophisticated, yet efficient enough to keep test costs under control-Comit's Fiesta CMBT is the first embedded memory BIST tool to deliver these capabilities.

The Fiesta CMBT's ability to lower test costs-a vital issue among chip manufacturers today-is primarily due to the tool's full-speed memory test capability, which helps test embedded memories, including MoSys' 1T-SRAM® embedded memories, at real-time access speeds, ensuring accurate identification of SoC devices that might fail in the field. Commenting on the value-add of the Fiesta CMBT test solution, Comit Systems Vice President of Engineering Venkat Iyer said, "Test cost is a function of time spent under the tester, and accurate identification of repairable devices is critical to improving yield. Our Fiesta CMBT tool simultaneously minimizes test time, and thus test cost, while achieving unmatched detection of repairable devices. We believe this capability will prove instrumental in improving yields on advanced SoC designs for our chipmaking customers and Technology Alliance Program partners, such as MoSys."

TAP partner MoSys (Monolithic System Technology Inc.), the industry's leading provider of high-density SoC embedded memory solutions, provided valuable input during the development of the Fiesta CMBT. Commenting on this cooperative effort, Mark-Eric Jones, MoSys' vice president and general manager of Intellectual Property, stated, "By working closely with Comit and providing our requirements throughout the development stage, we were able to ensure an optimum BIST solution for 1T-SRAM embedded memories. Lower test cost, reducing the test time and simplifying the analysis of test results will immediately benefit our customers."

As the pioneer of outsourced engineering services, Comit's engineers work directly with customers to achieve rapid design realization, first-silicon successes and significant productivity gains, while simultaneously reducing the possibility of errors. Fiesta CMBT not only addresses two key elements of memory testability-full-speed testing and fault-accumulative testing-it also provides programmable test data patterns and supports all types of read/write latencies. All these critical capabilities are required to ensure that the on-chip embedded memory will not fail in the field, and to more accurately determine whether or not faulty memory is repairable. Full-speed testing examines embedded memory with both the clock speed and access times in real-life values-a significant improvement over currently available at-speed testing, which is limited only to testing at real-life clock speed. The Fiesta CMBT's fault-accumulative testing offers fault-data retention over multiple test passes at varying voltages and temperatures. This is a vast improvement over current traditional offerings, which lose previous data during successive passes.

The Fiesta CMBT Memory BIST tool is now available for use on Solaris, Linux and Windows operating systems.

About Comit Systems
Founded in 1992 and recognized as one of the 100 fastest-growing private companies in Silicon Valley, Comit Systems, through its Contract Engineering Center in Santa Clara, Calif., provides turnkey contract engineering services for electronic product development through the design of chips, boards, software and systems, using the latest enabling technologies and tools. Comit's comprehensive range of engineering services and highly developed engineering process tools dramatically compresses product development cycles and delivers quality and value to deadline. Similar to what contract manufacturing offered to semiconductor manufacturers in reducing their burden of fixed costs, Comit Systems has developed a unique business model by developing an infrastructure of tools and process templates that reasonably guarantee implementation success. Comit provides scalable resources and a flexible infrastructure comprised of robust, proven processes that help customers achieve reasonable implementation success and improved ROI. More information about Comit Systems, Inc. may be found at www.comit.com

Fiesta(R) is a Comit Systems trademark registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
1T-SRAM(R) is a MoSys trademark registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.