Fremont, CA, June 22, 2000 - Asyst Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq NM: ASYT) today announced that it has received an order from Atmel Corporation, San Jose, Calif., for Asyst's fab-wide Standard Mechanical InterFace (SMIF) automation technology. The multimillion-dollar order includes Asyst's SMIF-LPTs™ for transferring cassettes into and out of process equipment, SMART-Tags™ for wafer lot tracking, SMIF- Pod™ for encapsulating wafer cassettes, single-reticle pods and wafer sorters.

The Asyst products will be installed at Fab 8, Atmel's first SMIF fab, located in Irving, Texas, beginning in August this year. Atmel will use the products in the manufacture of advanced silicon germanium (SiGe), BiCMOS, radio frequency, non-volatile memory, microcontrollers and ASICs with 0.25- and 0.18-micron design rules. These devices will be used in consumer applications such as mobile phones, DVD players, PCs and servers.

Atmel Executive Vice President of Technology, Tsung-Ching Wu noted that Asyst had been a supplier prior to this order, although their orders were exclusively for non-SMIF products such as wafer sorters and reticle pods. "As we continue to manufacture more advanced integrated circuits (ICs), SMIF technology will become increasingly important to ensure the integrity of our wafers as they move through the various stages involved in semiconductor fabrication," stated Wu. "Atmel recognized the need to integrate this technology into our manufacturing strategy. After looking at several potential suppliers, we chose Asyst, the pioneer in SMIF technology, because of their expertise and their strong regional support team."

"This order marks the 75th fab worldwide to have purchased our SMIF wafer isolation and fab automation technologies," stated Dennis Riccio, Senior Vice President of Global Customer Operations. "It is indicative of the industry's continued strong acceptance of SMIF as an industry standard for increasing wafer yield and productivity. We are pleased that the strength of our relationship with Atmel over the past six years has culminated in this order, and look forward to this new expanded role in their manufacturing process."

Except for statements of historical fact, the statements in this press release are forward-looking. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. These factors include, but are not limited to, general economic conditions, semiconductor industry cycles, risks associated with the acceptance of new products and product capabilities and other factors more fully detailed in the Company's recent 10-Q quarterly report on file with the SEC.

About Atmel:

Founded in 1984, Atmel Corporation is headquartered in San Jose, California with manufacturing facilities in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Irving, Texas; Nantes and Rousset, France and Heilbronn, Germany. Atmel designs, manufactures and markets on a worldwide basis advanced logic, mixed-signal, non-volatile memory, and RF semiconductors. Atmel is also a leading provider of system level integration semiconductor solutions using advanced CMOS, BiCMOS, Bipolar and SiGe process technologies.

Atmel product and financial information can be retrieved from its Fax-on-Demand service. In North America call 1-(800) 292-8635. International, from a fax phone, call 1-(408) 441-0732. You can send your request via e-mail to literature@atmel.com or visit Atmel's Web site at http://www.atmel.com.

About Asyst:

Asyst Technologies, Inc. is the leading provider of SMIF-based minienvironment and manufacturing automation systems that enable semiconductor manufacturers to protect customers' valued assets throughout the manufacturing process while increasing manufacturing productivity. Asyst offers a broad range of 200 mm and 300 mm products that enable the Company to provide semiconductor manufacturers and OEMs automated manufacturing solutions for the transfer of wafers and information between the process equipment and the fab line.