Teradyne

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Teradyne

Type	Public (NYSE: TER)
Founded	1969
Headquarters	Boston, Massachusetts
Key people	Alex d’Arbeloff, Nick DeWolf
Industry	Electronic Testing
Revenue	US$1.6 billion (2006)^{[citation needed]}
Slogan	"Because Technology Never Stops"
Website	www.teradyne.com

Teradyne NYSE: TER, a US company, is a supplier of automatic test equipment (ATE). As of 2005, it has the largest marketshare in the SOC market. The company's divisions, Broadband Test, Assembly Test, Semiconductor Test, and Vehicle Diagnostic Solutions, are organized by the products they develop and deliver.

In 2003, Teradyne had sales of $US 1.4 billion, and as of 2006, employs about 3800 people worldwide. Teradyne laid off about 50 % of its workforce in the last 10 years.

1 Current divisions
2 Former divisions
3 History
4 Competition

[edit] Current divisions

The Semiconductor Test Division manufactures test equipment used by integrated circuit manufacturers. As of 2006, Teradyne manufactures three principal tester families of testers known as the Catalyst, Tiger, and Flex. These testers are used by semiconductor manufacturers to test and classify the individual devices ("dice") on a completed semiconductor wafer and then used again to retest the parts once they are enclosed in their final packaging. Tiger testers are capable of testing SOC (Mixed-signal, System on a chip) devices with more than 1600 pins and data rates extending beyond 3.2 GHz. Portions of this division were acquired when Teradyne purchased Megatest.

The Assembly Test Division builds testers that test completed circuit boards (Printed circuit boards/Printed Wiring Boards). This includes both electrical testing, automated optical inspection (AOI) and automated X-ray inspection equipment. This division was substantially expanded when Teradyne purchased GenRad (General Radio).

Deerfield, Illinois's Broadband Test Division sells turnkey services to telephone companies and broadband providers. These solutions allow telephone companies to routinely scan and evaluate their customer's voice circuits and DSL lines, often allowing problems to be detected and corrected before the customer becomes aware of them.

Vehicle Test Solutions sells customized diagnostic equipment to automobile manufacturers worldwide.

[edit] Former divisions

Teradyne Connection Systems, based in Nashua, New Hampshire manufactures high-density electronic connectors, complete backplanes, and systems packaging. On 10 October 2005, Teradyne announced that this division was being sold to Amphenol for about US$ 390 million in cash. [1]

Teradyne tradeshow booth, early 1960s

[edit] History

Teradyne was founded by Alex d’Arbeloff and Nick DeWolf, who were classmates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1940s. The men founded Teradyne in 1960, and set up shop in rented space above Joe and Nemo’s hotdog stand in downtown Boston. The name, Teradyne, was intended to represent a very forceful presence. 1,000,000,000,000 dynes = 10 meganewtons (2,248,089 pounds-force or 1,019,716 kilograms-force).

In 1961, they sold their first product, a diode tester, to Raytheon. Today, Teradyne operates major facilities in North Reading, Massachusetts; Agoura Hills, California; Fridley, Minnesota, Deerfield, Illinois and other locations worldwide.

In 2006 Teradyne sold its two Boston buildings and consolidated all of its Boston-area staff to the North Reading site. Teradyne also sold off its TCS (Teradyne Connection System)in year 2006 in order to gather cash and focus on its core business to complete with others growing competitors like Advantest, Verigy and Eagle Test Systems. In year end 2006, Teradyne started outsourcing some of its business in Asia. Including the field services work liked system(Installation,options upgrade,HW troubleshooting).Taiwan,Singapore and Malaysia are the affected countries.

Year 2006 is a good year for Teradyne, because of good sales of its "1000 Flex" semiconductor test system. Able to cut cost and gather cash to buy back some of its shares. In order to cut cost, Teradyne laid off a number of employees in the US and Europe and now tries to relocate its main business unit to Asia (Singpore) and to outsource some of its business units. These steps were successful in bringing down expenses and increase profitability.