Intel is tops, Nvidia is bottom of the Chip top 20

INTEL IS AT THE TOP and Nvidia is at the bottom of the 2008 Top 20 chip rankings, according to industry analyst outfit Isuppli.

Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, and ST Microelectronics occupy the top five positions. AMD is at number 11 and Nvidia is number 20 in the ranking.

Economic factors played havoc with this year's Top 20 with memory chip manufacturers being some of the hardest hit. South Korea-based Hynix slid from Number six to Number nine. Hynix is looking for people who want to invest in the foundering foundry company.

Micron is expected to post a 9.2 percent revenue decrease in 2008 and Hynix's revenue should dive by about 29 percent in 2008, Isuppli said.

The world's Number two chipmaker, Samsung Electronics, is set for a 9.1 percent revenue decline for the year.

Isuppli also said that 2008 will go down as "a year to forget" for memory chip suppliers.

Infineon, which is ranked at Number 10, expects 2009 revenue to fall at least 15 percent from the previous year.

Global semiconductor revenue is expected to decline by two percent in 2008 due to a 16.9 percent plunge in sales of memory integrated circuits.

Texas Instruments, Renesas Technology, and Sony are also expected to see their chip making profits slump.

Still, it is a lot better than 2001 when chip sales fell by 48.2 percent. It was also good news for Qualcomm which is expected to jump five places to Number eight in the rankings in 2008. µ

L'Inq
AP