Chip sales boom in early 2000

So far in this third millennium, the volatile chip industry is off to a great

start. The boom in semiconductor demand has resulted in a 33.4 per cent rise in

global sales during the first two months of 2000, and shipments in February

reached $14.56 billion, up from $10.92 billion, according to the Semiconductor

Industry Association. In the Asia Pacific and Japanese markets, sales grew at

45.4 per cent and 42.5 per cent, respectively from last year. The American

market was up 24.7 per cent from last year. Europe's sales grew at 25.1 per

cent.

"The year-to-year growth of semiconductor sales indicates a strong 2000

for the chip industry," said SIA President, George Scalise. "We expect

this year to be another good year for our industry and the continued expansion

of communications networks and the Internet will provide broad product growth

for all chip sectors including Digital Signal Processors (DSP), Standard Cell,

DRAMs, microprocessors, Flash and telecom."