The
Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) and International SEMATECH (ISMT) announced
today the new NIST/Sematech e-Handbook of Statistical Methods.
NIST teamed up with International SEMATECH, a consortium
of worldwide major semiconductor companies, to provide this
Web-based guide for engineers, scientists, businesses, researchers
and teachers who use statistical techniques in their work.
The
e-Handbook expands and updates Handbook 91, Experimental
Statistics, originally published by NIST in 1963. Engineers
and scientists worldwide have relied on the printed version
for nearly four decades. The e-Handbook is now available
at www.nist.gov/stat.handbook. The e-Handbook will be available
on CD later this summer.
The
e-Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of statistical
methods, including experiment design, data analysis and
quality control. It is tailored to the needs of engineers
and scientists for rapid understanding and quick solution
of statistical problems so that they can get back to their
primary work. The approach is problem-oriented and includes
detailed case studies from the semiconductor industry and
from NIST laboratories to illustrate statistical approaches
to solving engineering and scientific problems. The Web
site also includes links to integrated software packages.
The
NIST and ISMT goal in revising the 1963 handbook was to
provide immediate access to more modern statistical techniques
with examples related to the semiconductor industry. The
project evolved into a Web site that is integrated with
a free, downloadable statistical analysis package, Dataplot,
which is maintained by NIST's Information Technology Laboratory.
Once the semiconductor industry initiated the joint venture
with NIST, the project garnered enthusiastic support from
the oil, auto and chemical industries and from university
researchers.
The
result of their effort is the new e-Handbook which provides
modern statistical techniques and updated case studies for
engineers and scientists who want to use statistical tools
without becoming statisticians themselves.
The
e-Handbook also will be available on CD with many of the
files in a printer-friendly format. There will not be a
hardcover edition. The e-Handbook is interactive, with computer
graphics and easy search capability for rapid information
exploration.
Thousands
of scientists and engineers from industry, academia and
government have used a beta-test version of the Web site
and have contributed valuable suggestions that NIST has
implemented. Already, users in more than 24 foreign countries,
multiple federal agencies, universities and industries and
businesses have praised the e-Handbook for the coverage
of statistical topics, for the relevance of the case studies
and for the ease of application of the statistical methodology.
ISMT
is a global semiconductor technology development consortium
that has effectively represented the semiconductor manufacturing
industry on innovation issues since 1988; its members are
Agere Systems, AMD, Hewlett-Packard, Hynix, IBM, Infineon,
Intel, Motorola, Philips, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments
and TSMC. ISMT conducts state-of-the-art research and is
a highly regarded technology partner whose mission is to
promote the interests common to all chipmakers. It has extensive
experience collaborating with equipment and materials suppliers,
as well as government and academic research centers, to
refine the tools and technology necessary to produce future
generations of chips. Additional information may be found
at www.sematech.org.
As a
non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce's
Technology Administration, NIST develops and promotes measurements,
standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate
trade, and improve the quality of life. For more information
on NIST, visit www.nist.gov.