Chip Revenues Up 11 Percent This YearChip Revenues Up 11 Percent This Year

Worldwide semiconductor revenue rose by more than 11 percent this year to $261.4 billion, driven primarily by DRAM and wireless chip sales, market research firm Gartner said.

Intel remained the No. 1 vendor for the 15th year, despite a revenue decline of 9.5 percent, Gartner said Thursday. Until the fourth quarter, Intel lost market share, as its CPUs for servers and high-end consumer computers were inferior to rival Advanced Micro Device (AMD) in price and performance.

Many PC OEMs this year increased their offerings of AMD-based computers, including Intel-only stalwart Dell, which started offering AMD machines across its mobile, desktop and server products. Intel revenue was further eroded by an across-the-board price war, Gartner said.

No. 2 Samsung Electronics gained market share to capture nearly 8 percent of global revenue. The company now dominates most areas of the memory market, holding the top position in DRAM, SRAM and the NAND flash markets, Gartner said.

AMD broke into the top 10 vendors this year, moving up 5 notches from last year to No. 9. Gartner included revenue from graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies, which AMD acquired this year.

Rounding out the top five vendors were Texas Instruments, Infineon Technologies and STMicroelectronics, respectively.

Gartner is predicting high single-digit revenue growth next year, driven by ongoing strength in DRAM sales, coupled with strong consumer electronics sales at retailers.