Actian > Case Studies > Actian Helps Cypress Semiconductor Maintain Blue-Chip Manufacturing Quality

Actian Helps Cypress Semiconductor Maintain Blue-Chip Manufacturing Quality

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Actian Ingres Database
Actian Ingres Premium Service

Tech Stack

Ingres Database
Sun Solaris

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Cost Savings

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage

Applicable Industries

Semiconductors

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing

Use Cases

Manufacturing System Automation

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a diversified supplier of high-performance, integrated circuits for network infrastructure and access equipment. The company's manufacturing processes are intensive in both scale and precision, as its billion-dollar wafer fabrication plants conduct and log dozens of intricate manufacturing processes. The company's productivity can come to a costly halt if its systems can't keep pace with its requirements. The company demands absolute perfection from its databases and related services. If the machinery sits idle, the company faces serious production problems. If the measurement specifications are off by a fraction of a millimeter, that can also cause trouble.

The Challenge

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a diversified supplier of high-performance, integrated circuits for network infrastructure and access equipment. The company’s manufacturing processes are intensive in both scale and precision, as its billion-dollar wafer fabrication plants conduct and log dozens of intricate manufacturing processes. If its machinery sits idle, the company has serious production problems. If the measurement specifications are off by a fraction of a millimeter, that’s trouble, too. “If you botch a wafer lot by executing a wrong step or mismanaging precision controls, you’ve literally destroyed a million dollars worth of wafers,” said Robert Price, DBA Manager at Cypress. “If any aspect of the system goes down, it will cost you.” This need for reliable, consistent performance has led Cypress to demand absolute perfection from its databases and related services. Simply put, if its systems can’t keep pace with its requirements, the company’s productivity comes to a costly halt.

The Solution

Cypress’ selection of a database for its manufacturing system came down to two solutions: Oracle or Ingres. “We chose Ingres,” said Price, “and it’s done the job.” Ingres Database, a leading open source database for business-critical applications, provides Cypress with a high-performance, highly scalable, expertly supported database that supports manufacturing processes that perform tens of thousands of hourly operations. Cypress currently runs Ingres on Sun Solaris on 12 of its production servers. The solution’s fullfeatured, enterprise-class database enables industry-standard data access via JDBC, ODBC, and .NET, providing Cypress’s production systems with the data they need, when they need it to ensure precise production control and accurate manufacturing. Transaction journaling and point-intime recovery help Cypress quickly diagnose and address any problems that do arise. On the rare occasions when the system does go down, Ingres Premium Service keep interruptions limited to minutes or hours rather than days. The service option gives Cypress one point of contact for service and a very tight relationship with its Ingres support team.

Operational Impact

High system uptime for consistent, accurate production
Scalability to support tens of thousands of hourly operations
Precision control to prevent millions of dollars in manufacturing errors
Maximum system uptime and accuracy help Cypress turn out perfect chips around the clock – and maintain its position as one of the world’s leading semiconductor makers.

Quantitative Benefit