fast-growing demand for these semiconductors

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jean Armour Polly <mom () netmom com>
Date: April 15, 2006 8:55:10 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: fast-growing demand for these semiconductors

Intel rides PC demand to top of semiconductor market
Ben Ames, IDG News Service - MacCentral
Thu Apr 13, 4:47 PM ET
High demand for PCs using Pentium and Centrino processors helped  
Intel preserve its ranking at the top of the semiconductor market,  
which posted record revenue in 2005, according to a report from  
analyst firm Gartner Inc.

Rival chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) grew its portion  
of the microprocessor sector by 50 percent in 2005, but that effort  
won it only a 12 percent share, worth US$3.8 billion, according to  
Gartner analyst Richard Gordon. Intel's comparatively stodgy 13  
percent growth lead to an 86 percent market share worth $27.5 billion.
...Overall, the worldwide market for semiconductors was $235 billion  
in 2005, an increase of 5.7 percent from the previous year and enough  
to break the record $223 billion set in 2000.
Much of that growth came from demand for commodity memory chips such  
as DRAM (dynamic RAM) and SRAM (static RAM).
Consumers lined up to buy cellular phones and MP3 music players,  
driving dramatic growth for memory chips and helping Samsung  
Electronics Co. Ltd. maintain the second-largest market share. MP3 is  
a file format for storing compressed audio data.
The most popular technology in this segment was NAND flash, which  
rose 71 percent from 2004, to $12 billion.
Hynix Semiconductor Inc. rode the wave of NAND demand, reaching the  
top 10 list for the first time by posting annual revenue growth of  
23.1 percent, nearly double the rate of giants like Intel (12.6  
percent) and Samsung (12.7 percent).
Still, Hynix lags behind the leaders with 2005 revenue of $5.7  
billion compared to Intel's $34.6 billion, Samsung's $18.3 billion  
and Texas Instruments Inc.'s $10.1 billion.
Other fast-growing segments of the semiconductor market included CMOS  
image sensors, which are used in digital cameras, rising 28 percent,  
consumer ASICs used in digital audio players (14 percent) and  
wireless ASICs used in cell phones (9 percent). ASIC means  
application specific integrated circuit.
Geographically, the greatest source of industry growth was the Asia/ 
Pacific region (including China, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore) which  
produced 44.5 percent of worldwide revenue and also grew the fastest,  
rising 11 percent from last year.
The Europe, Middle East and Africa region grew 4 percent, followed by  
the Americas with 1 percent and Japan with a scant 0.2 percent.

more
http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/20060413/tc_macworld/intel20060413_0


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