Journalists are expected to have at least one good ear for quotes, and Craig Addison-an Aussie who now writes from his base in California-has turned his good ear to the quotable comments of chip executives. His collection of quotations was published recently by The Lightpoint Group as Best of Times, Worst of Times: Quotations from the Best and Brightest Minds in the Semiconductor Industry. The 92-page paperback sells for $6.95

Now, on to a sampling of the quotes, with Gordon Moore first up to bat. Reflecting on the early days at Fairchild Semiconductor, the founder of Intel recalled that "at that moment, all we were trying to do was get some yield on the new product and pay our mortgages. Changing the world was the furthest thing from our minds."

Park Chong-Sup, speaking in 1990, described Hyundai's strategy for its DRAM business thusly: "We hope to increase production regardless of supply and demand."

Hajime Sasaki, chairman of NEC, described Japan's failed attempt to increase logic IC sales while keeping its hand in DRAMs as "chasing two rabbits at the same time."

Bob Helms, the former CEO of International Sematech, noted that "it used to be the big eat the small, but today the fast run over the slow."

Speaking of China's new foundries, TSMC's Morris Chang once said, "I wish they would go away, but they're not going away."

Stanley Myers, president of the SEMI trade group, said the cyclical nature of the industry is "like having your butt in the refrigerator and your head in the oven."

In November 2000, W.J. (Jerry) Sanders III, then the CEO of AMD, said, "I think the industry is going to have a wind at its back for the next several years."

Noting that a recovery was predicted for the second half of 2001, the second half of 2002 and the second half of 2003, Jean-Philippe Dauvin, economist at STMicroelectronics, said, "I've decided to live my life in the second half of the year."

Speaking of silicon cycles, Wilf Corrigan of LSI Logic said, "It's like breathing in and out. We've been through this many times before."

And let's give Gordon Moore the last word. Discussing Moore's Law at the 2003 ISSCC, he said: "No physical quantity can continue to change exponentially forever. Your job is delaying forever."

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