Sales increased by 2.1 percent from the three-month average in July 2006, when total semiconductor sales were $20.1 billion. The previous record for one-month worldwide chip sales was $20.4 billion in November 2005.

"Once again we saw relatively strong sales across a very broad range of semiconductor products, which reflects healthy end markets," said George Scalise, president of the SIA (San Jose, Calif.) in a statement. "Sales growth was led by DRAMs, which increased by 7.5 percent from July and by 31.4 percent from August 2005, an indication that PC sales remained strong. Sales of microprocessors increased by 2.1 percent from July, while declining by 6.8 percent from a year ago. Strong competition has resulted in a year-on-year 18 percent decline in average selling prices for microprocessors as unit sales have increased," he said.

The SIA and other regional industry groups publicize sales statistics gathered by WSTS as the three-month moving averages of monthly sales activity, rather than the actual numbers. The SIA says it calculates averages to smooth out variations due to companies' sales reporting calendars, which often make March, June, September and December five-week months thereby inflating those month's numbers.

In June the SIA raised its forecast for 2006 worldwide sales growth to 9.8 percent from 7.9 percent.