Chip sales up in April

The global semiconductor sales reached $19.6 billion in April, according to SIA. "More intense competition led to a sequential decline of 6.1 percent in sales of microprocessors, offsetting modest growth in the rest of the microchip market," said George Scalise, SIA president, in a statement. "The PC market remains strong, with unit sales of personal computers running 13 to 15 percent ahead of last year's levels," Scalise said. The overall chip sales were down sequentially in all regions except in Asia Pacific which grew 1.1 percent to reach $9 billion. "The overall market growth rate continues to run slightly ahead of the SIA forecast issued last November, which projected growth of 7.9 percent," Scalise said, adding that SIA plans to issue an updated forecast June 7.