The main story of 2005 is one of the growing importance of consumers in driving sales of semiconductors.

The issues we're dealing with here are what it will take to maintain this leadership in the industry . . . what will be required to establish the next generation of technology.

The information we have now says that the major foundries out there are ramping back up again and they had no damage to their facility or their equipment,

The financial turbulence of Asia and other market changes have crimped the expected expansion of global chip markets in early 1998,

Although business investment has yet to pick up, consumer confidence and inventory replenishing continue to rise, driving the early stages of the overall recovery,

The industry is currently experiencing lower sales due to an inventory overhang and deceleration in the end-equipment markets. Current forecasts suggest the inventory adjustment will be completed by the end of the third quarter, and end-market product demand will improve later in the year.

All in all, we're very well aligned with what the president laid out in his State of the Union address the other night.

The July data, and the year-on-year increase, confirm that a moderate but sustainable recovery continues, putting us on track for 7-9 percent sequential growth in the third quarter,

For the first time since the September quarter of 2000, Asia Pacific sales had a modest increase on a sequential basis reflecting improved supply-demand balance in the PC market,

Strong holiday season sales of consumer products such as cell phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players drove record sales of semiconductors in November.