April 18, 2005 – The Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2) and SEMI today announced a partnership agreement to address the increasing cost and complexities associated with design for manufacturability (DFM) of ICs. A number of both near-term and ongoing-term collaboration efforts are planned.

Si2 will sponsor technical presentations and coordinate Si2 member participation in the new EDA special exhibit area in the Emerging Technologies Hall of SEMICON West 2005, to be held July 12-14, 2005, in San Francisco. SEMI will participate in upcoming EDA events in partnership with Si2, such as the Design Automation Conference to be held in Anaheim in mid-June. Other areas of collaboration are currently being discussed.

“The issue of design for manufacturing was listed as a primary concern of semiconductor fab managers in a recently-conducted SEMI survey,” said Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. “We are pleased to take action on this topic through collaboration with Si2 in order to better meet the needs of SEMI members and their customers. We see important benefits to our respective members through closer coordination among our industry associations.”

“The intrinsic problems facing ever-decreasing sub-wavelength ICs have created an economic imperative for the semiconductor industry to shift to the ‘system view,’ because isolated flows for design and manufacturing are growing more inefficient,” stated Steve Schulz, president and CEO of Si2. “Our member companies recognize this as an industry problem that can only be solved through broad cross-industry collaboration, especially with the types of companies represented by SEMI. We need to develop new standard interfaces, models, and semantics that permit streamlined data integration, opening up new opportunities for competitive solutions and a more efficient industry.”