SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Advantest Corporation (TSE:6857TSE:NYSE:TSE:ATE), the global leader in semiconductor test equipment, is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the founding of its U.S. subsidiary, Advantest America, Inc. Founded in the fall of 1982 in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, Advantest America was the first subsidiary of the 53-year-old Tokyo-based company, which now has 43 subsidiaries worldwide. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California since 1998, Advantest America has played a critical role in the company's attaining ATE market and technology leadership. Advantest Corporation's visionary global strategy, unsurpassed investments in R&D, and dedication to outstanding engineering combined with its presence in the U.S. -- starting point to many of the world's major high-technology innovations in business and consumer products -- have contributed to Advantest's No. 1 ATE market ranking as well as to its excellent customer track record. For 19 consecutive years, Advantest has been ranked among VLSI Research Inc.'s 10 BEST for customer satisfaction. Advantest America has become an important contributor to the company's worldwide R&D efforts. Advantest America is home to two R&D centers. The latest R&D group, founded three years ago and numbering more than 40 engineers and technology experts, is dedicated to creating test solutions for the logic/SoC segment of the semiconductor market, which is largely in the U.S. Advantest America has also been a leader in industry collaboration and problem-solving as the local presence of Advantest in the Semiconductor Test Consortium (STC), of which Advantest Corporation is a founding charter member. The STC is the first international, industry-wide collaboration aimed at developing a scalable, flexible test platform -- the OPENSTAR(R) open- architecture standard -- with specifications that are publicly available to the industry. As a global company with a commitment to the North American market and world-class standards among financial markets, in 2001 Advantest listed on the New York Stock Exchange. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Advantest America, the company is holding a special customer event and has also made a substantial donation to Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley, a home-renovation program for low-income Silicon Valley residents. About Advantest Advantest Corporation is the global leader in automatic test equipment to the semiconductor industry. Advantest's 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 and its European subsidiary in 1984. More information is available at http://www.advantest.com/. DATASOURCE: Advantest Corporation CONTACT: Amy Gold of Advantest America, Inc., +1-212-850-6670, ; or Barbara Palmer of Palmer Communications, +1-914-725-8057, , for Advantest Corporation Web site: http://www.advantest.com/

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