Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Finance
Reexamination Certificate
1998-02-17
2001-05-29
Stamber, Eric W. (Department: 2163)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Finance
C705S001100, C705S500000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240400
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method and system for accommodating electronic commerce in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.
INTRODUCTION TO THE INVENTION
Electronic and integrated circuit devices (also known as “chips”) are an essential component in the appliance, computer, car, phone, and machine industry. Concomitantly, technological advances in these various industries have increased the electronic content required in the chips. As a result, the industry that manufactures the electronic and integrated circuit devices, the semiconductor manufacturing industry, is experiencing strong growth.
Semiconductor manufacturing is a very capital-intensive industry. The cost of building a wafer fabrication (fab) facility is usually more than $1 billion. Therefore, semiconductor manufacturers want to increase the utilization of their existing facilities. However, fluctuations in demands for chips may result in a mismatch between manufacturing capacity and demand, thereby disadvantageously resulting in excess manufacturing capacity in some companies and a shortage in others. Currently, under such conditions, companies may delay order deliveries or incur very large losses due to idle capacity. These capacity shortages at the fabrication facility can affect manufacturers that use chips as raw materials in their products. Delayed deliveries greatly increase requirements for safety stocks, and can also result in considerable lost sales for a company.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
We have now discovered a novel method and system which can enable semiconductor manufacturers and downstream product manufacturers and users of chips to trade semiconductor manufacturing capacity, thereby creating a situation that can result in benefits for all parties. Some advantages of such a method/system include:
an efficient utilization of semiconductor manufacturing capacity;
a preservation of anonymity of the players in this market, and hence a preservation of competitive information a company may not want to divulge;
a creation of a common marketplace where all the players can trade semiconductor manufacturing capacity simultaneously, thereby obviating one-to-one negotiations and their attendant high search costs;
a flexibility to change capacity commitments in line with customer demands from time to time.
Accordingly, in a first aspect of the present invention, we disclose a computer implemented method for accommodating electronic commerce in a semiconductor manufacturing capacity market, the method comprising the steps of:
1) identifying a plurality of players in the semiconductor manufacturing capacity market, each of which players can solicit capacity in semiconductor manufacturing capacity market;
2) providing a neutral third-party, the neutral third party and the plurality of players configured in a hub arrangement for communicating with each of the plurality of players in semiconductor manufacturing capacity trades;
and
3) realizing an open market conditionality between each of the plurality of players and the neutral third party so that:
i) the semiconductor manufacturing capacity supplied by one or more of the players can be bought and sold among the players; and,
ii) the neutral third party can preserve anonymity of each of the plurality of players soliciting semiconductor manufacturing capacity.
In a second aspect of the present invention, we disclose a system for accommodating electronic commerce in a semiconductor manufacturing capacity market, the system comprising:
1) means for identifying a plurality of players in the semiconductor manufacturing market, each of which players can solicit capacity in the semiconductor manufacturing market;
2) means for providing a neutral third-party, the neutral third party and the plurality of players configured in a hub arrangement for communicating with each of the plurality of players in semiconductor manufacturing capacity trades;
and
3) means for effecting an open market conditionality between each of the plurality of players and the neutral third party so that:
i) the semiconductor manufacturing capacity supplied by one or more of the players can be bought and sold among the players; and,
ii) the neutral third party can preserve anonymity of each of the plurality of players soliciting semiconductor manufacturing capacity.
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Chou Yu-Li
Garg Amit
International Business Machines - Corporation
Kaufman, Esq. Stephen J.
McGinn & Gibb, P.C.
Robinson-Boyce Akiba
Stamber Eric W.
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