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Q&A Answers to your questions about KLA-Tencor and the Year 2000 issue. KLA-Tencor takes the Y2K issue very seriously from both a product readiness and business continuity perspective. We understand the magnitude of this issue for our customers and for our business. We are committed to doing everything we can to ensure a successful transition to and through the Year 2000.
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What is KLA-Tencor doing to address the Y2K issue?
processors, operating systems and third party software have also been evaluated.
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How many KLA-Tencor tools are affected by Y2K?
KLA-Tencor has a Year 2000 readiness project team and program well under way to identify and address all of the main areas of concern: KLA-Tencor yield management systems, internal business systems and services, internal networking and tooling, and critical suppliers. Each product group has an assigned Y2K product owner to coordinate and drive the product-specific Y2K issues, and to work closely with the Y2K program team. Senior management is closely monitoring the program to ensure that it receives the appropriate priority and resources.
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What is KLA-Tencor doing to make its products Y2K ready?
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Through our participation in the SEMATECH Year 2000 Readiness Supplier Survey, we have evaluated all our current products with the SEMATECH recommended version 2.0 test scenarios. The results are reported in KLA-Tencor's Product Readiness Matrix, which is available to customers through KLA-Tencor sales and service personnel. In addition, C and C++ code have been inspected for date-related code. BIOS, embedded
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Because KLA-Tencor’s worldwide installed base is approximately 17,000, including retired systems and products that are no longer sold, the company faces a substantial challenge in addressing the Y2K issue. While many of our products are not affected by Y2K and many customers are not electing to upgrade all tools, we estimate that between 8,000 and 9,000 tools will be upgraded by the program’s completion. Field audits, where service engineers determine the product hardware and software configurations, enter that information into our Y2K database and generate recommended Y2K upgrades, will be substantially complete by the time this article is published. Where product obsolescence or other issues prevent KLA-Tencor from providing Y2K support, customers are being notified.
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Will there be charges for these Y2K upgrades?
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As companies in every industry are discovering, the magnitude of the Y2K Spring 1999
program makes it impossible to fund all changes internally. There is typically a range of potential solutions for a given equipment set, reflecting individual customer characteristics and preferences, and necessitating the customer’s involvement in determining the appropriate solution set. Costs are determined by which solutions are chosen and, very significantly, by whether the system is covered by contract or warranty. For billable customers, how current their system configurations are would drive costs as well. KLA-Tencor’s policy is not to treat Year 2000 as a revenue enhancement opportunity. We expect Y2K revenues will only partially offset our program costs.
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Will KLA-Tencor’s internal systems be ready as well?
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The company has assigned dozens of people to inventory, evaluate, and remediate our internal business systems and tooling. Activities are well along in all these areas. We anticipate completion of these activities, as well as evaluation of our suppliers by mid year. For more information contact your local account team or representative for product status, availability and pricing of Y2K upgrades.
Yield Management Solutions
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