SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel Corp.'s top executive here today gave a vote of confidence for the future of the IC business in spite of the current downturn, but he urged chip makers and systems houses to continue investing and innovating in order to keep the struggling industry healthy.
The semiconductor industry is still in the midst of its worst downturn, in which worldwide chip sales fell a staggering 35% in 2001 over 2000, noted Craig Barrett, chief executive of Intel.
"This is the deepest trough that the semiconductor industry has ever faced," said Barrett, during the opening keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco at the Moscone Center. The IDF meeting has grown so large that it was moved for the first time to San Francisco.
To drive the now-ailing chip industry out of the current doldrums, Barrett urged chip makers and systems houses to develop new products and services to fuel new growth in the decade. "You need to continue to invest," Barrett said. "We have to innovate out of the recession with new products," he added.
The Intel CEO did indicate that the IC makers and systems houses are on the verge of what he called a "technology break away," which will be a wave of new products driving new growth.
And what will drive the industry? Well, one major candidate is actually left over from the last boom period. "The Internet is it," Barrett said. The Internet "has just started its build out," he insisted. "That's why I'm confident about the future."
Other related markets will also drive the chip industry, such as broadband, optical networking, security, wireless, and, of course, the PC. "The computer and communications convergence is emerging," he said.
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