Key Staff Promotions and Industry Veteran Hiring Round Off Genus' Next Growth Phase

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (August 29, 2000) – Building on its recent technological and financial successes, Genus, Inc. (NASDAQ: GGNS) has taken significant steps to re-define its management and technology teams. This increases the company's ability to provide major customers with the leading edge technology critical to the fast approaching 0.13 micron world.

A key appointment in the foundation of this strategy has been the promotion of Dr. Ofer Sneh to vice president and general manager of the Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) products group. Dr. Sneh has been a key driver in Genus' ALD technology and is now positioned to take this product line to large scale multiple client production acceptance.

Genus also announced the formation of the Tungsten Products Group and the appointment of Bruce Roberts, from Dominion Semiconductor, as this new group's vice president and general manager. Roberts is responsible for meeting the needs of the customer base while expanding the acceptance of advanced manufacturing solutions.

In addition, Mike DeMartini has been promoted to the position of vice president of Systems Engineering. DeMartini is responsible for ensuring that Genus has a common architecture in all new systems coming to the market in both 200 and 300mm configuration.

"New market opportunities, along with Genus' innovative state-of-the-art technology, healthy financials, vision for the future and a series of strategic changes have put the company in a fast growth mode," commented William Elder, president and CEO of Genus. "To take advantage of these opportunities and support Genus' growth and profitability expectations, we continue to strengthen our management and technology team."

"The pace of our transition is being guided by meeting the competitive needs of our customers," remarked Tom Seidel, Genus CTO. "The company is entering an exciting growth phase that includes volume manufacturing with new applications."

Safe Harbor

This press release contains statements that may be deemed forward-looking regarding the use of ALD technology by the semiconductor industry. Any such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including actual acceptance of ALD technology by the marketplace, potential development of competing technologies, cyclical economic conditions in the semiconductor equipment market, and global economic conditions. Additional associated risks and uncertainties are found in the Management's Discussion and Analysis of Results of Operations section of Genus' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 1999 and in Genus' subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About Genus

Founded in 1982, Genus, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets capital equipment and deposition processes for advanced semiconductor manufacturing, as well as for other emerging non-semiconductor applications. Genus offers various thin-film deposition modules using its own production-proven equipment and processes for both chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD). The deposition processes are used to manufacture integrated circuits for the computer, communications, medical, military, transportation, and consumer electronics industries. Genus' customers include semiconductor manufacturers located throughout the United States, Europe, and the Pacific Rim, including Korea and Japan. Company headquarters are in Sunnyvale, California. For additional information, visit Genus' Web site at www.genus.com.