TOKYO, JAPAN - Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL; Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO, President: Tetsuro Higashi) announced that effective October 1, 2002, TEL will reorganize its software development division.

Specific organizational changes are as follows:

1. The operations of TEL's Advanced Software Engineering Dept. will be transferred to Tokyo Electron Sapporo Limited (Head Office: Sapporo City, Hokkaido; President: Kosuke Ishii), a software development subsidiary.
2. The trade name and other corporate profiles of Tokyo Electron Sapporo will become (outline of the new company): Name: Tokyo Electron Software Technologies Limited Address: 30-7, Sumiyoshi-cho 2-chome, Fuchu City, Tokyo Capitalization: 100 million yen President: Kosuke Ishii (currently President, Tokyo Electron Sapporo Limited) Employees: 252 (planned for October 1)

As semiconductor production lines become more complex, the need to develop advanced software to reduce production costs and increase productivity has become paramount. These requirements call for flexible software, such as for e-Diagnostics, which provides remote-control diagnosis of the operating status of production equipment, Advanced Process Control (APC), which monitors and automatically controls semiconductor production processes, or software for automation of the entire production line. TEL's customers are requiring the company to develop software with world-class quality and performance to meet these needs.

The planned reorganization will reorganize TEL's software technologies and human resources, which are currently scattered throughout various organizations of the company. The new organization will operate as a software development company that gathers information on cutting-edge software technologies worldwide for semiconductor production equipment, with the aim of pursuing efficient software development. This will help TEL respond to customer requests quickly and precisely for enhanced customer satisfaction.