Patent ID: 7286896

Claim:
A programmable hand-held device for use in communicating with a plurality of manufacturing equipment in a semiconductor manufacturing environment, the device comprising: an interface adapted for establishing a connection between the device and at least two of the plurality of manufacturing equipment, wherein at least one of the plurality of manufacturing equipment is remotely controllable; a processor operable to process executable instructions; an input device for receiving input instructions for communicating with one of the plurality of manufacturing equipment; and a memory containing the executable instructions accessible to the processor, wherein at least a portion of the executable instructions are divided into multiple subsets of instructions, wherein a first subset of instructions is adapted for communication with a first one of the plurality of manufacturing equipment and at least one other subset of instructions is adapted for communication with a second one of the plurality of manufacturing equipment, wherein the second one of the plurality of manufacturing equipment performs a different manufacturing function than the first one of the plurality of manufacturing equipment, the executable instructions further including: identification instructions for identifying a selected one of the plurality of manufacturing equipment; selection instructions for selecting a subset of instructions adapted for communication with the selected one of the plurality of manufacturing equipment; and simulating instructions for simulating a control device able to interact with the selected one of the plurality of manufacturing equipment via the interface using the subset of instructions and the input instructions.