Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

New e-Handbook of Statistical Methods Available Online from NIST

The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and International SEMATECH (ISMT) announced today the new NIST/Sematech e-Handbook of Statistical Methods. NIST teamed up with International SEMATECH, a consortium of worldwide major semiconductor companies, to provide this Web-based guide for engineers, scientists, businesses, researchers and teachers who use statistical techniques in their work.

The e-Handbook expands and updates Handbook 91, Experimental Statistics, originally published by NIST in 1963. Engineers and scientists worldwide have relied on the printed version for nearly four decades. The e-Handbook is now available at www.nist.gov/stat.handbook. The e-Handbook will be available on CD later this summer.

The e-Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of statistical methods, including experiment design, data analysis and quality control. It is tailored to the needs of engineers and scientists for rapid understanding and quick solution of statistical problems so that they can get back to their primary work. The approach is problem-oriented and includes detailed case studies from the semiconductor industry and from NIST laboratories to illustrate statistical approaches to solving engineering and scientific problems. The Web site also includes links to integrated software packages.

The NIST and ISMT goal in revising the 1963 handbook was to provide immediate access to more modern statistical techniques with examples related to the semiconductor industry. The project evolved into a Web site that is integrated with a free, downloadable statistical analysis package, Dataplot, which is maintained by NIST's Information Technology Laboratory. Once the semiconductor industry initiated the joint venture with NIST, the project garnered enthusiastic support from the oil, auto and chemical industries and from university researchers.

The result of their effort is the new e-Handbook which provides modern statistical techniques and updated case studies for engineers and scientists who want to use statistical tools without becoming statisticians themselves.

The e-Handbook also will be available on CD with many of the files in a printer-friendly format. There will not be a hardcover edition. The e-Handbook is interactive, with computer graphics and easy search capability for rapid information exploration.

Thousands of scientists and engineers from industry, academia and government have used a beta-test version of the Web site and have contributed valuable suggestions that NIST has implemented. Already, users in more than 24 foreign countries, multiple federal agencies, universities and industries and businesses have praised the e-Handbook for the coverage of statistical topics, for the relevance of the case studies and for the ease of application of the statistical methodology.

ISMT is a global semiconductor technology development consortium that has effectively represented the semiconductor manufacturing industry on innovation issues since 1988; its members are Agere Systems, AMD, Hewlett-Packard, Hynix, IBM, Infineon, Intel, Motorola, Philips, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and TSMC. ISMT conducts state-of-the-art research and is a highly regarded technology partner whose mission is to promote the interests common to all chipmakers. It has extensive experience collaborating with equipment and materials suppliers, as well as government and academic research centers, to refine the tools and technology necessary to produce future generations of chips. Additional information may be found at www.sematech.org.

As a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration, NIST develops and promotes measurements, standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate trade, and improve the quality of life. For more information on NIST, visit www.nist.gov.

Released June 15, 2002, Updated January 23, 2023