Global chip sales leaped to a record high of US$21.37 billion in September, boosted by demand for mobile phones, digital music players and PCs, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said Thursday.PC memory chip sales also boosted the chip industry, as vendors add more dynamic RAM (DRAM) to new PCs in order to keep up with the hardware requirements for Microsoft’s Windows Vista OS, SIA said. DRAM sales rose by 10 percent month on month, while microprocessor sales increased by 4 percent. Sales of microprocessors actually declined 11 percent compared to the same month last year, due to the price war going on between Intel and rival Advanced Micro Devices.Mobile phone sales also boosted the chip industry, particularly on demand in India and China, SIA said, where ultra-low-cost handsets have pushed demand. Texas Instruments, the world’s largest maker of chips for handsets, said in late October that ultra-low-cost mobile phones are taking up a much larger share of the overall handset market than before, a trend it expects to continue for a long time. The September sales record was up 9.3 percent over the same month last year, and beat the old record of $20.5 billion reported in August of this year. The SIA predicted a strong fourth quarter for the chip industry as retailers stock shelves ahead of the holiday shopping season. The industry group reiterated its prediction for 9.8 percent global sales growth for the global industry this year.-Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service (Taipei Bureau) Related Links: Chip Sales in Aug. Hit Record $20.5B Weak Computer Sales Slow Chip Industry GrowthCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe