SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Advantest Corporation , the global leader in semiconductor automatic test equipment (ATE), announces that it has again increased its leading market share in ATE, based on the latest reported industry numbers for the first half of calendar year 2005. According to the latest data published by VLSI Research Inc., Advantest leads the ATE market with close to 45 percent of the total market. Advantest's 2005 first-half achievement represents an 8 percent increase year over year. In the rapidly growing sub-segment of SoC test, Advantest has gained strength to become the industry leader with a greater than 36 percent market share, while it continues to lead the memory test segment with a market share of over 73 percent.

VLSI Research's assessment of market segments also shows that in the first six months of 2005, the non-memory ATE market has grown while the memory market has stayed even, compared to all of 2004. Since Advantest introduced its T2000 open architecture SoC test platform in September 2003, it has dramatically increased its share of the growing SoC market to become the leading supplier of test equipment for this burgeoning market. Advantest is also a long-established market leader in pick-and-place handlers, with a 31 percent share of that market.

"Advantest's continued achievements in the first half of 2005, are noteworthy," says G. Dan Hutcheson, VLSI Research's CEO. "The company continues to escalate its growth in SoC, a relatively new segment for Advantest, while it continues its leadership in memory and handlers. Beyond revenue growth and market share leadership, the company's development of its T2000 OPENSTAR-compliant platform proved that Advantest heard and listened to the need for a new open architecture -- a demonstration of real leadership and customer collaboration."

R. Keith Lee, president and CEO of Advantest America, Inc. observes that such growth allows Advantest to better serve customers and the industry, "We are pleased to have this market success, but believe that the benefits of it accrue back to our customers in terms of product leadership, partnership, stability and longevity, superb test engineering and manufacturing, and everything that contributes to the highly valued, cost-effective solutions they need to be successful in their own markets."

About Advantest

Advantest Corporation is the global leader in automatic test equipment for the semiconductor industry and also produces electronic and optoelectronic instruments and systems. A global company, Advantest has long offered total ATE solutions, and serves the industry in every component of semiconductor test: tester, handler, mechanical and electrical interfaces, and software. Its SoC, logic, memory, mixed-signal and RF testers and device handlers are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor fabrication lines in the world. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its North American subsidiary in 1982. Advantest America, Inc. and Advantest America R&D Center, Inc. are based in Santa Clara, California. More information is available at http://www.advantest.com/.

CONTACT: Amy Gold, Advantest America, Inc., +1-212-850-6670,
a.gold@advantest.com; or Barbara Palmer, Palmer Communications,
+1-914-725-8057, bpalmer@palmercommunications.com

Web site: http://www.advantest.com/