Patent ID: 8843905
Filing Date: 2014-09-23
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A server apparatus located in a first location, the server apparatus communicating, via a wired or wireless communication line including at least one of internet, intranet, and public telephone network, with a plurality of manufacturing apparatuses and with a client apparatus, each manufacturing apparatus being located remotely from the first location, the server apparatus comprising: an upgrade information receiving portion that receives upgrade information, which relates to upgrading an execution software program configured to control the manufacturing apparatus; a state information storage portion in which state information is stored, the state information relating to states of the manufacturing apparatuses, and whether or not each of the manufacturing apparatuses is performing a process; a transmission judging portion that judges not to transmit the upgrade information via the wired or wireless communication line to one of the manufacturing apparatuses if the state information indicates that the one of the manufacturing apparatuses is performing a process, and that judges to transmit the upgrade information to the one of the manufacturing apparatuses if the state information indicates that the one of the manufacturing apparatuses is not performing a process; and a transmitting portion that transmits the upgrade information to the one of the manufacturing apparatuses to which the transmission judging portion has judged to transmit the upgrade information, wherein the client apparatus is configured to transmit the upgrade information to the server apparatus, and the server apparatus is configured to receive the upgrade information from the client apparatus and transmit the upgrade information to the one of the manufacturing apparatuses, wherein if the state information indicates that at least 30% of the number of manufacturing apparatuses to be upgraded are performing a process during transmission of the upgrade information to the one of the manufacturing apparatuses, then the transmission judging portion judges to cancel the transmission of the upgrade information, wherein the state information further contains information relating to whether or not each of the manufacturing apparatuses is communicable with the server apparatus, and the transmission judging portion judges not to transmit the upgrade information to each of the manufacturing apparatuses that is indicated by the state information to be incommunicable with the server apparatus, the upgrade information receiving portion is configured to receive apparatus identification information that identifies the manufacturing apparatus for which the execution software program is to be upgraded, and when it is judged not to transmit the upgrade information to the one of the manufacturing apparatuses in the transmission judging portion, the transmission judging portion judges to retry to transmit the upgrade information to the one of the manufacturing apparatuses by using the state information, wherein the manufacturing apparatuses are configured to perform a semiconductor process on at least one processing target substrate.