Press Releases

Novellus Announces Availability and Timing of MidQuarter Update Conference Call Webcast for Third Quarter 2002 SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 15, 2002—Novellus Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:NVLS), the productivity and innovation leader in advanced deposition and surface preparation processes for the global semiconductor industry, today announced that it will provide its mid-quarter update for the third quarter 2002 in a conference call to be held Thursday, August 29, 2002, beginning at 1:30 p.m. PDT. The call will be available via an audio webcast that can be accessed on Novellus’ Investor Relations home page, located at www.novellus.com/. A replay of the webcast will be available for seven days following the conference call.

About Novellus Systems:

Novellus Systems, Inc., an S&P 500 company, manufactures, markets and services advanced deposition and surface preparation equipment for today’s advanced integrated circuits. The company’s products are designed for high-volume production of advanced, leading-edge semiconductor devices at the lowest possible cost. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with subsidiaries throughout the United States as well as in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, Israel, Italy, India, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, Novellus is a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq stock exchange (Nasdaq:NVLS) and a component of the Nasdaq-100 Index ? . Additional information about the company is available on Novellus’ home page at www.novellus.com