Demand growth to return for core silicon chips
iSuppli forecasts core silicon revenue will increase 8.3% in the third quarter
By James Carbone -- Purchasing, 6/18/2009 2:00:00 AM
The global core silicon market appears to have bottomed out and will grow in the third and fourth quarters, according to researcher iSuppli.
The core silicon market includes application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application-specific standard products (ASSPs) and programmable logic devices (PLDs).
Global core silicon revenue will increase $19 billion in the third quarter, up 8.3% from $17.6 billion in the second quarter. Revenue will increase to $19.6 billion in the fourth quarter. This will mark the first sequential rise in a year when revenue increased 6.7% in the third quarter of 2008, according to the researcher.
Despite the industry and economic downturn, there are signs that the core silicon market will turn around. "Core silicon suppliers are experiencing increasing demand from some of the market's largest application drivers," says Jordan Selburn, principal analyst for core silicon at iSuppli.
While desktop PCs and 2G cell phone shipments will decline in 2009, other drivers such as 3G wireless phones, netbook PCs and set-top boxes, are still expected to grow. "These markets alone will be enough to keep the core silicon market moving down the tracks toward an expected expansion in 2010," says Selburn.
The second quarter will mark the low point for the core silicon market during the current downturn. Revenue in the second quarter of $17.6 billion will be about 29% less than second quarter 2008 revenue of $24.9 billion.
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