PDF Solutions Inc (PDFS) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the PDF Solutions Inc. conference call to discuss its financial results for the quarter and year-end 2023 conference call ending Saturday, December 31, 2023. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. If you have not yet received a copy of the corresponding press release, it has been posted to PDF's website at www.pdf.com.

大家好，歡迎參加 PDF Solutions Inc. 電話會議，討論其截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日星期六的 2023 年季度和年末電話會議的財務業績。（操作員說明）提醒一下，這次會議正在記錄。如果您還沒有收到相應新聞稿的副本，它已發佈到 PDF 的網站 www.pdf.com。

Some of the statements that will be made in the course of this conference are forward-looking, including statements regarding PDF's future financial results and performance, growth rates and demand for its solutions. PDF's actual results could differ materially. You should refer to the section entitled Risk Factors on pages 15 through 29 of PDF's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, and similar disclosures in subsequent SEC filings. The forward-looking statements and risks stated in this conference call are based on information available to PDF today. PDF assumes no obligation to update them.

將在本次會議期間發表的一些聲明具有前瞻性，包括有關 PDF 未來財務結果和業績、增長率和對其解決方案的需求的聲明。 PDF 的實際結果可能存在重大差異。您應該參考 PDF 截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日止財政年度的 10-K 表年度報告第 15 至 29 頁標題為“風險因素”的部分，以及隨後向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中的類似披露。本次電話會議中陳述的前瞻性陳述和風險基於 PDF 今天可獲得的信息。 PDF 不承擔更新它們的義務。

Now I'd like to introduce your host, John Kibarian, PDF's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Adnan Raza, PDF's Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Kibarian, please go ahead.

現在我想介紹一下主持人，PDF 總裁兼首席執行官 John Kibarian； PDF 的首席財務官 Adnan Raza。 Kibarian 先生，請繼續。

Thank you for joining us on today's call. If you've not already seen our earnings press release and management report for the first quarter, please go to the Investors section of our website, where each has been posted.

感謝您參加今天的電話會議。如果您還沒有看到我們第一季度的收益新聞稿和管理報告，請訪問我們網站的投資者部分，每個部分都已發布。

The first quarter was a good start to our year, revenue remained strong, and we benefited from our newer strategic partnerships as we experienced continued adoption of our end-to-end analytics by our customers. Before Adnan discusses the financials in detail, I have some comments about the events in the first quarter and our perceptions of the market in the second quarter and the remainder of the year.

第一季度是我們這一年的良好開端，收入保持強勁，我們從新的戰略合作夥伴關係中受益，因為我們的客戶繼續採用我們的端到端分析。在 Adnan 詳細討論財務數據之前，我對第一季度的事件以及我們對第二季度和今年剩餘時間的市場看法發表了一些評論。

Bookings were light in the first quarter following a record bookings in Q4. This is a similar pattern to Q2 of last year, which also followed a strong quarter. Despite the bookings level, activity with customers remain very strong. In the quarter, we started benefiting from our collaboration with SAP. We experienced our first large 7-figure booking for our products that integrate SAP's HANA ERP data with manufacturing analytics data, enabling more accurate and timely applications for operations and finance organizations.

在第四季度創紀錄的預訂量之後，第一季度的預訂量很少。這與去年第二季度的模式類似，也是一個強勁的季度。儘管預訂水平很高，但與客戶的活動仍然非常活躍。本季度，我們開始受益於與 SAP 的合作。我們的產品首次獲得了 7 位數的大訂單，這些產品將 SAP 的 HANA ERP 數據與製造分析數據集成在一起，為運營和財務組織提供更準確、更及時的應用程序。

Our solutions are designed to enable customers to react more quickly to changing business environments. This product is a result of our collaboration with SAP as well as our acquisition of Cimetrix that we completed about 3 years ago. The solution provided to the customer includes our Sapience Manufacturing Hub which enables near real-time connection between ERP, manufacturing and engineering data, as well as extensive application that leverages financial, operational and engineering data.

我們的解決方案旨在使客戶能夠更快地對不斷變化的業務環境做出反應。該產品是我們與 SAP 合作以及我們大約 3 年前完成的對 Cimetrix 的收購的結果。提供給客戶的解決方案包括我們的 Sapience Manufacturing Hub，它可以在 ERP、製造和工程數據之間實現近乎實時的連接，以及利用財務、運營和工程數據的廣泛應用。

More than this being an important first proof point for our collaboration with SAP, many of our customers are expressing interest in this application. While SAP-generated business was the largest strategic partner related booking in the quarter, our other collaborations also resulted in bookings and important leads. In total, over 40% of bookings in Q1 were via our strategic partners. This speaks to the value of our collaboration strategy. As the largest independent end-to-end analytics SaaS provider to the semiconductor industry, we are a natural partner.

這不僅是我們與 SAP 合作的第一個重要證明點，而且我們的許多客戶都對此應用程序表示了興趣。雖然 SAP 生成的業務是本季度最大的戰略合作夥伴相關預訂，但我們的其他合作也帶來了預訂和重要線索。總的來說，第一季度超過 40% 的預訂是通過我們的戰略合作夥伴進行的。這說明了我們合作戰略的價值。作為半導體行業最大的獨立端到端分析 SaaS 提供商，我們是天然的合作夥伴。

Other significant bookings in the quarter include contracts for leading edge infrastructure for advanced development, including one with a memory customer. Our memory customers are experiencing a strong correction this year, so we were encouraged to see this customer investing with PDF solutions. Gainshare remained nearly unchanged from Q4 of last year as customers, particularly in China, shipped at similar volumes.

本季度的其他重要預訂包括用於高級開發的前沿基礎設施合同，其中包括與內存客戶的合同。我們的內存客戶今年經歷了一次強烈的調整，因此我們很高興看到該客戶投資於 PDF 解決方案。嘉盛與去年第四季度相比幾乎沒有變化，因為客戶，尤其是中國客戶的出貨量相似。

Finally, bookings for Cimetrix's connectivity runtime licenses decreased meaningfully in Q1 versus Q4 as our customers' equipment shipments decreased. This is not surprising given the weakness in the capital equipment market. Overall, with our strong backlog and business model, where most of our revenue is ratably recognized, we continue to deliver strong results in revenue and earnings. We were pleased with the business activity in the quarter as it demonstrates the strength of our business model and partnership strategy.

最後，由於我們客戶的設備出貨量下降，Cimetrix 連接運行時許可證的預訂在第一季度與第四季度相比顯著下降。鑑於資本設備市場疲軟，這並不奇怪。總的來說，憑藉我們強大的積壓訂單和商業模式，我們的大部分收入都得到了認可，我們繼續在收入和收益方面取得強勁的成績。我們對本季度的業務活動感到滿意，因為它展示了我們業務模式和合作夥伴戰略的實力。

Now let me turn to discuss product development. Beyond the Sapience Manufacturing Hub, we have other new products and capabilities coming up this year. This includes the next advancement in our eProbe DFI tool. As part of the large contract we signed last year, we shipped the first of these advanced tools in April. It is designed for customers ramping 3- and 2-nanometer technologies, which often include backside power and gate-all-around structures. We are very excited about this milestone.

現在讓我談談產品開發。除了 Sapience Manufacturing Hub，我們今年還會推出其他新產品和新功能。這包括我們 eProbe DFI 工具的下一個進步。作為我們去年簽署的大型合同的一部分，我們在 4 月份運送了第一批這些先進工具。它專為提升 3 納米和 2 納米技術的客戶而設計，這些技術通常包括背面電源和環柵結構。我們對這一里程碑感到非常興奮。

Customers are building more system and package products, targeting end markets where quality is key, such as automotive and data center. For these customers, it is critical to use more advanced test screening at more test insertion points. We have built Exensio test exactly for this emerging need. This week at Advantest's Voice Conference we will demonstrate the next set of applications for their ACS edge box. These applications are designed for customers to deploy ML models at scale and benefit from our DEX Data Exchange Network and Exensio cloud platform, and managing the required data feed forward and feed back as well as model building and model quality monitoring.

客戶正在構建更多系統和封裝產品，目標是質量至關重要的終端市場，例如汽車和數據中心。對於這些客戶，在更多測試插入點使用更先進的測試篩選至關重要。我們專門針對這一新興需求構建了 Exensio 測試。本週在 Advantest 的語音會議上，我們將展示他們的 ACS edge box 的下一組應用程序。這些應用程序旨在讓客戶大規模部署 ML 模型並從我們的 DEX 數據交換網絡和 Exensio 雲平台中受益，並管理所需的數據前饋和反饋以及模型構建和模型質量監控。

Overall, from a product release standpoint, we expect the first half of this year to be very fruitful, which we believe will set -- will position us to have a strong results in the second -- strong results this year and in the future.

總的來說，從產品發布的角度來看，我們預計今年上半年會非常富有成果，我們相信這將使我們在今年和未來的第二年取得強勁的業績。

One quarter into 2023, the semiconductor environment is unsettled. There has been an inventory correction affecting many of our fabless and IDM customers. This has also generally impacted the foundries, OSATs and equipment companies that we serve. While the short-term environment is unclear, the long-term drivers for our customers, including increased use of AI/ML, cloud, smart devices and the electrification of the energy economy, remain in place.

進入 2023 年的四分之一，半導體環境不穩定。庫存調整影響了我們的許多無晶圓廠和 IDM 客戶。這也普遍影響了我們服務的代工廠、OSAT 和設備公司。雖然短期環境不明朗，但我們客戶的長期驅動因素，包括增加使用 AI/ML、雲、智能設備和能源經濟的電氣化，仍然存在。

These drivers are being amplified by the various government investments in semiconductors we are seeing around the world and the increased diversification of the supply chain that many of our customers are embracing. We remain confident in the outlook we provided earlier this year of overall annual revenue growth for the year approaching mid-teens.

我們在世界各地看到的政府對半導體的各種投資以及我們的許多客戶正在接受的供應鏈日益多樣化，這些驅動因素正在被放大。我們對今年早些時候提供的接近 25 歲的年度整體年收入增長的前景充滿信心。

We would also like to announce that on October 24 through the 26, we will have the PDF users group meeting at the Santa Clara Marriott. As with our pre-COVID event, we will host an Analyst Day on October 24. This gives our customers, partners, analysts and stockholders a chance to see the latest capabilities in PDF and also learn from each other. We hope that you'll be able to attend.

我們還想宣布，10 月 24 日至 26 日，我們將在聖克拉拉萬豪酒店舉行 PDF 用戶小組會議。與 COVID 之前的活動一樣，我們將在 10 月 24 日舉辦分析師日。這讓我們的客戶、合作夥伴、分析師和股東有機會看到 PDF 的最新功能，並相互學習。我們希望您能夠參加。

I want to thank all the PDS employees and contractors for their efforts this quarter. Now I will turn the call over to Adnan who will review the finances and provide his perspective on our results. Adnan?

我要感謝所有 PDS 員工和承包商本季度所做的努力。現在我將把電話轉給阿德南，他將審查財務並提供他對我們結果的看法。阿德南？

Thank you, John. Good afternoon, everyone. Good to speak with you again today, and I hope all of you and your families are well. We are pleased to review the financial results of the first quarter of 2023. As mentioned, our earnings release and the management report are posted in the Investor Relations section of our website. Our Form 10-Q was also filed with the SEC today. Please note that all of the financial results we discuss in today's call are on a non-GAAP basis, and a reconciliation to GAAP financials is provided in the materials on our website.

謝謝你，約翰。大家下午好。很高興今天再次與你們交談，我希望你們所有人和你們的家人都好。我們很高興回顧 2023 年第一季度的財務業績。如前所述，我們的收益發布和管理報告發佈在我們網站的投資者關係部分。我們的 10-Q 表格今天也已提交給美國證券交易委員會。請注意，我們在今天的電話會議中討論的所有財務結果均基於非公認會計原則，我們網站上的材料中提供了與公認會計原則財務的對賬。

We are off to a good start with the first quarter of 2023. Total revenues for the first quarter were $40.8 million, up 22% over last year's first quarter and up slightly on a sequential basis as well. Analytics revenue came in at $36.3 million, an increase of 19% year-over-year and also up slightly on a sequential basis. Our year-over-year strong performance is a result of the strength from Leading Edge and Exensio business, offset by some of the equipment shipment trends we saw recently.

我們在 2023 年第一季度開局良好。第一季度總收入為 4080 萬美元，比去年第一季度增長 22%，環比也略有增長。分析收入為 3630 萬美元，同比增長 19%，環比也略有增長。我們同比強勁的表現是 Leading Edge 和 Exensio 業務實力的結果，被我們最近看到的一些設備出貨趨勢所抵消。

For our Exensio products, we are benefiting from the recent large deals we spoke about over the last few quarters, utilizing the Exensio platform across manufacturing operations. For our leading edge solutions, we continue to engage strongly with multiple customers and see opportunities to expand this business. For our Cimetrix products, while we saw a meaningful impact due to the downturn in capital equipment spend, we benefited from our investments in new products such as Sapience Manufacturing Hub. Taken as a whole, we believe our analytics business continues to be strong, exhibiting near or in-line growth to our long-term growth targets.

對於我們的 Exensio 產品，我們受益於我們在過去幾個季度談到的最近的大型交易，在整個製造業務中使用 Exensio 平台。對於我們領先的解決方案，我們繼續與多個客戶密切合作，並看到擴展該業務的機會。對於我們的 Cimetrix 產品，雖然我們看到了由於資本設備支出下降而產生的重大影響，但我們受益於對 Sapience Manufacturing Hub 等新產品的投資。總的來說，我們相信我們的分析業務繼續保持強勁，表現出接近或符合我們長期增長目標的增長。

IYR revenue came in at $4.4 million and was up 44% over last year's first quarter. We are pleased that we have been able to rebuild this business over the last 1.5 years to meaningful levels. Our backlog for the quarter ended at a strong $261 million level, though down from $278 million a quarter ago. As John mentioned, our bookings will vary in size from quarter-to-quarter, and we are encouraged by what we see in our pipeline for the rest of the year. On a year-over-year basis, our backlog at the end of Q1 is up over 30%.

IYR 收入為 440 萬美元，比去年第一季度增長 44%。我們很高興能夠在過去 1.5 年中將這項業務重建到有意義的水平。我們本季度的積壓訂單以 2.61 億美元的強勁水平結束，儘管低於一個季度前的 2.78 億美元。正如 John 所提到的，我們的預訂量每個季度都會有所不同，我們對今年剩餘時間在管道中看到的情況感到鼓舞。與去年同期相比，我們在第一季度末的積壓訂單增加了 30% 以上。

Our gross margin for the first quarter came in at 75% versus 69% for Q1 last year and 74% for Q4, as we benefited from incrementally higher revenues and were able to realize savings from lower expense accruals and some cloud spend optimization. Our operating margin for the first quarter came in at 19% versus 11% a year ago same period and 20% of prior sequential quarter. On a year-over-year basis, the operating margin expansion was driven primarily by stronger revenue growth, coupled with lower expense growth from our cost of sales and operating expenses.

我們第一季度的毛利率為 75%，而去年第一季度為 69%，第四季度為 74%，因為我們受益於收入的增加，並且能夠通過較低的應計費用和一些雲支出優化實現節省。我們第一季度的營業利潤率為 19%，而去年同期為 11%，上一季度為 20%。與去年同期相比，營業利潤率的增長主要是由於收入增長強勁，以及我們的銷售成本和運營費用的費用增長較低。

We have improved our margins compared to last year as we reap the benefits of scale in our cloud business, allowing us the ability to apply engineering resources efficiently and more effective cloud spend. Net income for the quarter totaled $7.3 million or $0.19 per share, both essentially similar to Q4, however, meaningfully higher compared to Q1 last year's net income of $3.7 million or $0.09 per share. For year-over-year, our EPS increased by $0.10 per share.

與去年相比，我們的利潤率有所提高，因為我們在雲業務中獲得了規模效益，使我們能夠有效地應用工程資源和更有效的雲支出。本季度的淨收入總計 730 萬美元或每股 0.19 美元，與第四季度基本相似，但與去年第一季度的淨收入 370 萬美元或每股 0.09 美元相比顯著增加。與去年同期相比，我們的每股收益增加了 0.10 美元。

Turning to the balance sheet. We have carefully managed our cash position and carry 0 debt. We ended the quarter with cash and equivalents balance of $133.5 million, compared to $139.2 million at the end of prior quarter, with the change driven primarily due to timing of payment of accrued employee bonuses and CapEx spend to support the opportunities ahead of us. As we look to the next quarter and the rest of the year, we expect to moderately increase costs for ramped investment to meet the bookings opportunities and customer pilots for a stronger second half of the year.

轉向資產負債表。我們仔細管理我們的現金頭寸並承擔 0 債務。本季度末，我們的現金及等價物餘額為 1.335 億美元，而上一季度末為 1.392 億美元，這一變化主要是由於應計員工獎金的支付時間和資本支出支出，以支持我們面前的機會。展望下一季度和今年剩餘時間，我們預計將適度增加成本以增加投資，以滿足下半年更強勁的預訂機會和客戶試點。

For the full year 2022, we continue to be comfortable with our previously stated revenue growth rates approaching mid-teens on a year-over-year basis. All in all, it was a solid first quarter and positions us well for the rest of the year. We are pleased with the resilience of our business model and the realized and potential value from our strategic partnerships. We also look forward to hosting you all during our planned Analyst Day and PDF User's Group conference starting on Tuesday, October 24. Please look for a save-the-date press announcement later this week.

對於 2022 年全年，我們繼續對我們之前公佈的收入增長率接近 15% 的同比增長感到滿意。總而言之，這是一個穩健的第一季度，讓我們在今年餘下的時間里處於有利地位。我們對我們的商業模式的彈性以及我們戰略合作夥伴關係的已實現和潛在價值感到滿意。我們也期待在 10 月 24 日星期二開始的計劃中的分析師日和 PDF 用戶組會議期間接待大家。請留意本週晚些時候的最新新聞公告。

With that, let me turn the call over to the operator for Q&A.

有了這個，讓我把電話轉給接線員進行問答。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from the line of Blair Abernethy from Rosenblatt Securities.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Rosenblatt Securities 的 Blair Abernethy。

Great quarter, guys. John, I wonder if you could just give a little more color around the manufacturing execution systems solution with SAP. And just in terms of this 7-figure deal, how long -- what sort of selling cycle here and maybe some sense of what the pipeline looks like going forward?

偉大的季度，伙計們。約翰，我想知道你是否可以為 SAP 的製造執行系統解決方案提供更多色彩。就這筆 7 位數的交易而言，多長時間——這裡的銷售週期是什麼樣的，也許對未來的管道看起來有什麼感覺？

Sure. Thank you, Blair. So the selling cycle, we've been in discussion -- we've been working, I think, with SAP on this now for a couple of years. I wouldn't say that was the selling cycle. But that was definitely our work with them on designing out this application, building out the software for it, showing it to a number of early potential customers, of which this first customer is one of them. And it closed actually relatively quickly, with them, I think, helping us quite a bit to understand how to participate in that part of the market. Because it's obviously working with parts of the organization, companies, customers -- companies that have been our customers, in some cases, for years, but a different part of their organization.

當然。謝謝你，布萊爾。因此，我們一直在討論銷售週期——我認為，我們已經與 SAP 就此進行了幾年的合作。我不會說那是銷售週期。但這絕對是我們與他們一起設計這個應用程序的工作，為它構建軟件，向許多早期的潛在客戶展示它，第一個客戶就是其中之一。它實際上相對較快地關閉了，我認為，與他們一起，幫助我們了解如何參與這部分市場。因為它顯然與組織的部分、公司、客戶合作——在某些情況下，這些公司多年來一直是我們的客戶，但他們組織的不同部分。

The applications take advantage of the real-time information that Exensio has, how much consumables are used for each way for how much time are they -- is the way for going through each tool, what are the yields at different insertion points. So when you combine that with the ERP data and also the data that is in the manufacturing execution system, the operations organizations can have a very accurate costing model. I understand really truly what their costs are on a per product basis on a per route basis. And then a number of other applications that enhance their ability to look at field returns and understand the economic analysis.

這些應用程序利用了 Exensio 擁有的實時信息，每種方式使用了多少耗材，耗材使用了多少時間——是通過每種工具的方式，不同插入點的產量是多少。因此，當您將其與 ERP 數據以及製造執行系統中的數據相結合時，運營組織可以擁有非常準確的成本核算模型。我真正了解他們在每條路線的基礎上對每個產品的成本是多少。然後是一些其他應用程序，可以增強他們查看現場收益和理解經濟分析的能力。

In this first contract, we sold the costing module and the base platform that connects data together, deployed to a customer that is doing a large SAP deployment. And we talked with, as I said, a number of other customers, probably a handful at this point, that SAP have brought to us other companies that are also interested in the same application. And we see that it's got -- before we embarked on this, we felt there was a pretty good demand for this as we talk to other customers beyond the ones SAP have brought to us.

在第一份合同中，我們出售了成本核算模塊和將數據連接在一起的基礎平台，部署給進行大型 SAP 部署的客戶。正如我所說，我們與許多其他客戶進行了交談，此時可能只有少數客戶，SAP 已經為我們帶來了對同一應用程序也感興趣的其他公司。而且我們看到它已經 - 在我們開始這個之前，我們覺得有一個很好的需求，因為我們與 SAP 帶給我們的客戶之外的其他客戶交談。

We do hear a constant desire from companies. They want to be more nimble. And as the supply chain gets to be more and more sophisticated, having all of these speeds, handle them a very automated real time -- near real-time way becomes increasingly important for the customer base. So it really is a new way to use Exensio data and the Exensio connection. And we're super happy that SAP have worked with us to help us understand this application and build out this capability.

我們確實聽到了公司不斷的願望。他們想變得更靈活。隨著供應鏈變得越來越複雜，擁有所有這些速度，以非常自動化的實時方式處理它們 - 接近實時的方式對客戶群變得越來越重要。所以它確實是一種使用 Exensio 數據和 Exensio 連接的新方法。我們非常高興 SAP 與我們合作，幫助我們了解此應用程序並構建此功能。

That's great. And Adnan, if I could just ask just from your perspective. Could you just clarify the -- you said some of your spending areas are going to be going up this year. Could you just go through that again? And also, in terms of your sales and marketing spend in 2023, how are you feeling with respect to the spending levels for partners, the rep count and so forth? What are your sort of plans there to continue to drive growth?

那太棒了。阿德南，請問我是否可以從你的角度出發。你能不能澄清一下——你說你的一些支出領域今年會增加。你能再經歷一遍嗎？而且，就您在 2023 年的銷售和營銷支出而言，您對合作夥伴的支出水平、代表數量等有何看法？您有什麼計劃繼續推動增長？

Yes, sure. So look, I mean, #1 goal for us is to continue to grow the business. And as we focus on that growth from time to time, and not necessarily matching the revenue that we may realize just because of 606 and function of where the bookings come in, you will see us ramp up the investment. This was true a few years ago, right, before we were getting ready for the Advantest engagement. This was true last year and the year before when we were doing some of the leading edge engagements. So this comment is just similar to those past events that we have seen as well.

是的，當然。所以看，我的意思是，我們的第一目標是繼續發展業務。當我們不時關注這種增長時，不一定與我們可能實現的收入相匹配，因為 606 和預訂的功能，你會看到我們加大投資。幾年前就是這樣，對吧，在我們為 Advantest 的參與做準備之前。去年和前年我們進行一些前沿業務時都是如此。所以這個評論就像我們看到的那些過去的事件一樣。

You're also hearing from us how we feel about the rest of the year in terms of some of the booking in the pipeline and how that makes us feel good. So some of the comments with regards to increasing some of that spend are related to getting ready to do some of those bookings. As to the sales and marketing spend, look, this is again another area we try to optimize. With the increased revenue and the increased scale that we have, we hope that those margins will improve over time. But we take a close look at that from a quarter-to-quarter. Most of our increase, I think we expect would be on the kind of R&D development areas as we ramp up the capabilities of our solution set and platform for serving the customers.

您還從我們那裡聽到我們對今年剩餘時間的一些預訂情況的看法，以及這如何讓我們感覺良好。因此，關於增加部分支出的一些評論與準備進行其中一些預訂有關。至於銷售和營銷支出，看，這又是我們試圖優化的另一個領域。隨著我們收入的增加和規模的擴大，我們希望這些利潤率會隨著時間的推移而提高。但是我們逐個季度仔細研究一下。我認為，隨著我們提升解決方案集和平台為客戶服務的能力，我們預計我們的大部分增長將出現在研發開發領域。

And our next question comes from the line of Tom Diffely from D.A. Davidson.

我們的下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Tom Diffely。戴維森。

John, I thought I'd ask you a little bit more about the memory customers. I mean, historically, memory has not been a huge portion of your business. I'm just curious what's driving an increased activity level there.

約翰，我想我會問你更多關於內存客戶的問題。我的意思是，從歷史上看，內存並不是您業務的重要組成部分。我只是好奇是什麼推動了那裡的活動水平增加。

Sure. Thank you, Tom. Yes, we've seen this with this customer as well as others. When you look at futures of computing, it involves memory moving from being a commodity separate subsystem kind of through some very standard interfaces to the processing elements, to more and more memory as a more integral part of the compute system. So customers are wanting to get better statistical characterization of the logic portion of the memory elements, to design more sophisticated interface capabilities, be able to characterize them and control them in manufacturing.

當然。謝謝你，湯姆。是的，我們已經在這位客戶和其他客戶身上看到了這一點。當您展望計算的未來時，它涉及內存從商品獨立的子系統類型通過一些非常標準的接口到處理元素，再到越來越多的內存作為計算系統更不可或缺的一部分。因此，客戶希望獲得更好的存儲元件邏輯部分的統計特性，設計更複雜的接口功能，能夠在製造過程中對其進行特性描述和控制。

In the past, historically, the logic portion of the memory was really kind of built with legacy or relatively relaxed design rules, typically not very aggressive in terms of performance and kind of an afterthought. Now what we see customers, this one and others, increasingly looking at is how do we really integrate memory with logic, how do we get more performance there. And of course, some of this is coming in because memory technologies are moving like -- if you look at the X-stack technologies, with the flash element on one wafer, the logic element on another wafer, then you bond them together, certainly gives you a lot of ability to use more advanced nodes, more sophisticated logic.

在過去，從歷史上看，內存的邏輯部分實際上是用遺留的或相對寬鬆的設計規則構建的，通常在性能和事後考慮方面不是很激進。現在，我們看到客戶，這個客戶和其他客戶，越來越多地關注我們如何真正將內存與邏輯集成，我們如何在那裡獲得更高的性能。當然，其中一些是因為內存技術的發展——如果你看一下 X-stack 技術，閃存元件在一個晶圓上，邏輯元件在另一個晶圓上，然後你將它們粘合在一起，當然給你很多能力來使用更高級的節點，更複雜的邏輯。

So this is not an insignificant contract. It kind of demonstrates early interest from the customers. And as we alluded in my comments, this is kind of like what we saw a couple of years ago as we started putting our toe in the water with some other new customers when they start out with the characterization around this PDK area, and it generally expands into a more broader characterization if we're successful. And of course, we have to demonstrate the value of our systems to them.

所以這不是一份微不足道的合同。這有點表明了客戶的早期興趣。正如我們在評論中提到的，這有點像我們幾年前看到的情況，當時我們開始與其他一些新客戶一起涉足水中，當時他們開始圍繞這個 PDK 區域進行表徵，而且通常如果我們成功，將擴展到更廣泛的特徵。當然，我們必須向他們展示我們系統的價值。

But I think the broader trend that you're asking about, Tom, is really this idea that memory subsystems are going to increasingly become important as you get more performance per watt per dollar for future computing systems. And hence, with or without PDF, I think the world is going to have an awful lot more use of advanced logic and memory subsystems.

但我認為，湯姆，你問的更廣泛的趨勢實際上是這樣的想法，即隨著未來計算系統每瓦特性能的提高，內存子系統將變得越來越重要。因此，無論有沒有 PDF，我認為世界將會更多地使用高級邏輯和內存子系統。

Okay. And it sounds like it's a lot more complicated than just going from DDR4 to DDR5 and increased logic, but it's just a lot on the heterogeneous packages that are being put together.

好的。聽起來它比僅僅從 DDR4 到 DDR5 和增加的邏輯要復雜得多，但它只是在被放在一起的異構封裝上有很多。

Correct. Yes. You're right.

正確的。是的。你說得對。

And then on the automotive side, are you seeing the strength on the power side with silicon carbide or the control side with just the silicon?

然後在汽車方面，您是否看到了碳化矽在功率方面的優勢或僅在矽的控制方面的優勢？

In terms of the places where the most sophisticated test operations are being applied, I think you kind of referenced to my comments around customers looking for the most sophisticated test screening. We do see that on a lot of the ADAS, because the chips are quite sophisticated. They're trying to use FinFET and below technologies in cars, which historically cars -- the controllers that go into cars would be very, very relaxed geometries relative to the leading edge. So the time between when, let's say, you would see 7-nanometer in your phone and you would see 7-nanometer in your car, on the historical time scale, that would have been measured in decades. Now it's measured in years. And so the screening sophistication we're seeing first happening there. .

就應用最複雜的測試操作的地方而言，我認為您參考了我對尋求最複雜測試篩選的客戶的評論。我們確實在很多 ADAS 上看到了這一點，因為芯片非常複雜。他們正試圖在汽車中使用 FinFET 及以下技術，從歷史上看，汽車 - 相對於前沿技術，進入汽車的控制器將是非常非常寬鬆的幾何形狀。因此，比方說，在你的手機中看到 7 納米和你在汽車中看到 7 納米之間的時間，在歷史時間尺度上，這將以幾十年為單位進行測量。現在是按年計算的。因此，我們看到的篩選複雜性首先發生在那裡。 .

We are seeing an increased use of analytics for silicon carbide. Silicon carbide primary still is in a lot of the bring-up stages. And the sophistication and end-to-end analytics is, I think, really still just getting there. So I'd say the first place we see this more advanced capabilities on the leading edge, where they're trying to use technologies that are not that far behind the phone companies, which tend to use them first. So -- and we expect it to kind of spread across the majority of the automotive market over time. Test sophistication will go up across the automotive market.

我們看到越來越多地使用碳化矽分析。初級碳化矽仍處於許多培育階段。我認為，複雜和端到端的分析實際上還只是到達那裡。所以我想說的是，首先我們在前沿看到了這種更先進的功能，他們試圖使用與電話公司相差不遠的技術，而電話公司往往首先使用它們。所以——我們預計它會隨著時間的推移在大多數汽車市場中普及。整個汽車市場的測試複雜度將會提高。

Okay. Makes sense. And then when you see some strength in the data center side, are you starting to see kind of the next-generation silicon photonics as well?

好的。說得通。然後當你看到數據中心方面的一些優勢時，你是否也開始看到下一代矽光子學？

We do have some small number of silicon photonics customers on Exensio. I think I alluded to that in one of our previous calls. That part of it is still very, very nascent. Really still in the R&D stages with folks using the system to look at R&D silicon. The data center side, we see an increased number of application-specific chips designed by a broader set of companies than your conventional processor-vendors that are driving more use of Exensio. And we anticipate that trend continuing as you're seeing the workloads being moved to more and more specialized logic that is driving more complex assembly flows, as well as analytics being performed by a class of companies that historically didn't really design their own silicon.

我們在 Exensio 上確實有一些矽光子學客戶。我想我在我們之前的一個電話中提到過這一點。它的那一部分仍然非常非常新生。確實仍處於研發階段，人們使用該系統來查看研發矽。在數據中心方面，我們看到越來越多的特定應用芯片由更廣泛的公司設計，而不是推動 Exensio 使用的傳統處理器供應商。我們預計這種趨勢會持續下去，因為您會看到工作負載被轉移到越來越多的專業化邏輯中，這些邏輯正在推動更複雜的裝配流程，以及一類在歷史上並沒有真正設計自己的芯片的公司正在執行分析.

Okay. Very helpful. And then maybe just a quick clarification question. The 7-figure deal with SAP, is that for PDF alone? Or is that a joint venture? How would you describe that?

好的。很有幫助。然後可能只是一個快速澄清的問題。與 SAP 的 7 位數交易，僅針對 PDF 嗎？或者那是合資企業？你會怎麼形容呢？

Yes, that's -- so that's just for our product. We are available. If you look at -- the Manufacturing Hub is on the SAP website, it is a product on the SAP store. So when sold to the store, they do get a commission on that. So that does drive revenue for them from time to time, but it is primarily our product.

是的，那是——所以這只是針對我們的產品。我們有空。如果您查看 - 製造中心位於 SAP 網站上，它是 SAP 商店中的產品。所以當賣給商店時，他們確實會得到佣金。因此，這確實會不時為他們帶來收入，但這主要是我們的產品。

Okay. Great. And then final question. When you look at the Cimetrix installed base, what is the opportunity for upsell with new products in that installed base?

好的。偉大的。然後是最後一個問題。當您查看 Cimetrix 安裝基礎時，在該安裝基礎中使用新產品追加銷售的機會是什麼？

Yes, that's a great question, Tom. And one of our -- really 2 direct ideas we had when we did the Cimetrix merger. The first was ways of bringing new data types and new connectivity to analytics. And this SAP opportunity, not one we had really originally imagined, but really it's kind of in the spirit of that first, really bringing new data types into analytics was the first piece. The second piece of it was bringing our analytics products to equipment companies. Most of the larger equipment companies generate recurring revenue from their equipment by making analytics available to improve the uptime for equipment, the functionality equipment, the use of consumables, and these are usually of large service contracts.

是的，這是一個很好的問題，湯姆。當我們進行 Cimetrix 合併時，我們有一個真正的 2 個直接想法。第一個是為分析帶來新數據類型和新連接的方法。而這個 SAP 機會，不是我們最初真正想像的，但實際上它有點本著第一個的精神，真正將新的數據類型引入分析是第一個部分。第二部分是將我們的分析產品帶給設備公司。大多數較大的設備公司通過提供分析來提高設備的正常運行時間、功能設備、消耗品的使用，從而從他們的設備中產生經常性收入，這些通常是大型服務合同。

When you look at the Cimetrix installed base, we do have a couple of the top 5 companies using Cimetrix's connectivity, but a lot of the customers are equipment company, #5 through 50. And for them, they need a -- they want to generate recurring revenue with analytics or with some services, too, that are analytics based. So we've been actively working in development, making new analytics products that leverage the equipment companies' ability to create new service products, leveraging our analytics, their incremental data types and the infrastructure platform that combines Cimetrix, Exensio bring.

當您查看 Cimetrix 的安裝基礎時，我們確實有幾家排名前 5 的公司使用 Cimetrix 的連接，但很多客戶都是設備公司，排名第 5 到 50。對於他們來說，他們需要——他們想要通過分析或一些基於分析的服務產生經常性收入。因此，我們一直在積極致力於開發，製作新的分析產品，利用設備公司創建新服務產品的能力，利用我們的分析、他們的增量數據類型以及結合 Cimetrix、Exensio 帶來的基礎設施平台。

We're hoping to engage with customers on that as we get through this year and into next year. But that is the second leg of the relationship. The E142 was kind of the first one of those traceability. We've already released that. But there are some others that we are working on that would enable the equipment companies to generate recurring revenue stream, which is a desire for most of our customers.

我們希望在今年和明年與客戶就此進行交流。但這是關係的第二站。 E142 是第一個具有可追溯性的產品。我們已經發布了。但我們正在研究其他一些方法，使設備公司能夠產生經常性收入流，這是我們大多數客戶的願望。

(Operator Instructions) And our next question comes from the line of Christian Schwab from Craig-Hallum Capital.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Craig-Hallum Capital 的 Christian Schwab。

Good quarter, guys. So I just -- one quick question around backlog. I mean, I know the vast majority of that should be done over the next couple of years, which gives you great visibility. Is this something that we think over time as it's worked through is going to move down materially? Or do you expect to have that type of visibility continue to be layered on, say, like where should we expect backlog to be exiting calendar '23, John?

好季度，伙計們。所以我只是 - 一個關於積壓的快速問題。我的意思是，我知道其中絕大部分應該在接下來的幾年內完成，這會給你很大的知名度。隨著時間的推移，我們認為這件事會在實質上下降嗎？或者你是否希望這種類型的可見性繼續分層，比如說，我們應該期望積壓的訂單退出日曆 '23，約翰？

Yes. I mean, I know that we've got -- I can't give you kind of a specific number on a specific quarter. On a year-over-year basis, we generally expect it to grow, Christian. How it exactly does on any given quarter versus the previous quarter, of course, that's always like this quarter, right, it's down a little bit. We do see a lot of significant deals out there for us. Timing is always difficult. Is it a Q3, Q4, Q1, that could affect where you are at the end of the year. But on a year-over-year basis, we generally expect it to increase.

是的。我的意思是，我知道我們有——我不能給你特定季度的特定數字。 Christian，我們通常預計它會逐年增長。它在任何給定季度與上一季度的確切表現如何，當然，這總是像本季度一樣，對，它有所下降。我們確實看到了很多對我們來說很重要的交易。時機總是很困難。 Q3、Q4、Q1 是否會影響您在年底的位置。但與去年同期相比，我們普遍預計它會增加。

And like John mentioned in his prepared remarks, if I could add, a similar pattern to what we saw last year. If you looked at our backlog at Q2 of 2022, it was down compared to Q1. So it's more function of timing of the bookings. We'll always look to annual performance and how we can exceed that year-over-year.

就像約翰在他準備好的發言中提到的那樣，如果我可以補充的話，與我們去年看到的情況類似。如果您查看我們在 2022 年第二季度的積壓訂單，就會發現與第一季度相比有所下降。所以它更多的是預訂時間的功能。我們將始終關注年度業績以及我們如何能夠超越這一年。

Great. And then, I guess I do have one quick follow-up. Can you give us an update on Advantest and how much pull-through is -- or new opportunities have come from them? What type of level that customer is -- business is ramping to or where you would expect it to ramp the next year or 2?

偉大的。然後，我想我確實有一個快速跟進。你能給我們介紹一下 Advantest 的最新情況嗎？有多少成功——或者他們帶來了新的機會？客戶是什麼類型的級別 - 業務正在增長或您預計它在明年或 2 年會增長到什麼水平？

Yes. So it's great. Our first product that we announced with them was dynamic parametric test, or DPT. We've come up with a derivative of that. That continues to book, I would say, a couple of times a year, we see incremental bookings from that. That continues to grow. It's an all-ratable business. So obviously, every time we are booking incrementally more, it's layering on more. We've announced 5 additional products, I think, in Q3 of last year when they announced their Advantest ACS Edge store. Those products are out. We're out doing demos with them on those products with customers and entering in some pilots.

是的。所以這很棒。我們與他們一起發布的第一個產品是動態參數測試或 DPT。我們想出了一個衍生物。這繼續預訂，我想說，每年幾次，我們看到從中增加預訂。那繼續增長。這是一項全能的業務。很明顯，每次我們的預訂量越來越多時，它就會疊加更多。我認為，我們在去年第三季度宣布了他們的 Advantest ACS Edge 商店時宣布了另外 5 種產品。那些產品已經過時了。我們正在與他們一起與客戶一起對這些產品進行演示，並進行一些試點。

So we anticipate at some point over the next few quarters, Christian, they should start also like dynamic parametric test, start driving incrementally valuable revenue. And then we announced -- we're announcing at this -- demonstrating at this Voice this week, their user conference, which is going on today actually, additional products that really leverage our AI/ML capability. So those first set of products released were primarily statistical and model -- and rule-based tool applications. These are all ML model-based applications allowing for data feed forward, data feed back. Customers can bring their own model or leverage the PDF modeling environment. And we anticipate having those on their store over the next quarter or so, they are releasable now.

因此，我們預計在未來幾個季度的某個時候，克里斯蒂安，他們也應該開始像動態參數測試一樣，開始增加有價值的收入。然後我們宣布——我們在此宣布——在本週的 Voice 上展示了他們的用戶會議，實際上今天正在舉行，其他產品真正利用了我們的 AI/ML 功能。因此，發布的第一批產品主要是統計和模型——以及基於規則的工具應用程序。這些都是基於 ML 模型的應用程序，允許數據前饋和數據反饋。客戶可以自帶模型或利用 PDF 建模環境。我們預計將在下個季度左右在他們的商店上架這些產品，它們現在可以發布了。

And then we would anticipate by then we would have somewhere north of 8 apps on their store, and we anticipate those going through the same kind of eval selling cycle. So hopefully, over the next year or so, that these products will start driving more revenue. In the meantime, I think both for Advantest and PDF, our commitment to bringing more advanced analytics to the marketplace, we've helped each other in the market, I would say, in different accounts, where their vision with their Edge box and our vision with advanced modeling has been point for them to sell Edge boxes and the point for us to sell modeling capability, even if it's not directly through the store.

然後我們預計到那時我們將在他們的商店中擁有超過 8 個應用程序，並且我們預計這些應用程序將經歷相同的評估銷售週期。因此，希望在未來一年左右的時間裡，這些產品將開始帶來更多收入。與此同時，我認為對於 Advantest 和 PDF，我們致力於為市場帶來更先進的分析，我們在市場上互相幫助，我想說，在不同的客戶中，他們對 Edge box 的願景和我們的具有高級建模的願景一直是他們銷售 Edge boxes 的重點，也是我們銷售建模能力的重點，即使它不是直接通過商店。

Thank you. At this time, there are no more questions. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the program. Thank you for joining us on today's call.

謝謝。這個時候，沒有更多的問題了。女士們，先生們，節目到此結束。感謝您參加今天的電話會議。