One of the harshest realities of today's electronics landscape is the relentless drive to reduce capital expenditures. In some cases this has led to deferring or evading purchases of capital equipment and software licenses, often replacing internal capabilities with outsourcing. In others it has meant an explosion in creative, partnership-oriented relationships between vendors and users. A case in point will be announced today by the Semiconductor Test Solutions group at Agilent Technologies Inc. Examining both the test capacity and capital management needs of its customers—primarily large third-party test houses, semiconductor foundries and integrated device manufacturers—and exploiting unique features in the architecture of its flagship 93000 family of system-on-chip (SoC) testers, the company has come up with a pricing model with unique flexibility. It elaborates on a pricing model first seen with the IBM 360 line of mainframe computers nearly half a century ago.
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