FREMONT , Calif. — July 12, 2005 —The Spartan platform from Asyst Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASYT) is the company’s most successful new system to date, based on the product reaching the 100-unit shipment milestone in its first year of production. Most of the Spartan’s success so far has been in an Integrated Sorter configuration, enabling the company to claim leading sorter market share based on its unit shipments to date in calendar year 2005. The Spartan Sorter is now operating in 15 different 300mm fabs worldwide.

The Spartan revolutionizes wafer sorting and equipment front-end (EFEM) wafer handling through its high performance and the simplicity of its design. Because the Spartan platform was designed from the outset as a unified atmospheric wafer handling solution, it does not suffer from the component integration issues and related cost and complexity associated with traditional sorters and EFEMs. As a result, the company believes that the Spartan platform offers the industry’s highest reliability and serviceability, enabling the Spartan to provide the lowest cost-of-ownership of any comparable system available today. In addition, the Spartan’s proprietary Wafer Engine™ provides precise, high-speed wafer swaps, its optimized mini-environment offers better than ISO Class 1 performance, and in an EFEM application its SMART-Plus™ software provides a single, consistent interface to the front-end.

Asyst Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of integrated automation solutions that enable semiconductor and flat panel display (FPD) manufacturers to increase their manufacturing productivity and protect their investments in materials during the manufacturing process. Encompassing isolation systems, work-in-process materials management, substrate-handling robotics, automated transport and loading systems, and connectivity automation software, Asyst's modular, interoperable solutions allow chip and FPD manufacturers, as well as original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, to select and employ the value-assured, hands-off manufacturing capabilities that best suit their needs. Asyst's homepage is http://www.asyst.com.

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: Asyst’s ability to provide targeted customer benefits and product efficiencies and performance, including reliability, serviceability and cost-of-ownership, to integrate its systems effectively with those of our customers, to deliver and support its products in a timely manner, and other factors more fully detailed in Asyst’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2005 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Asyst” is a registered trademark of Asyst Technologies, Inc. “Spartan,” “Wafer Engine” and “SMART-Plus” are trademarks of Asyst Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.