April 9, 2001 – San Jose, CA – The Fabless Semiconductor Association has released the results of its 2001 Wafer and Packaging Demand Survey in which 111 fabless companies participated.

The 2001 Survey forecasts that wafer demand for fables companies will grow moderately, at 12% for 1H01. This includes a wafer demand decrease in the first quarter, followed by an aggressive forecast in 2Q01, the FSA said.

Fabless companies remain dependent on the “big three” pure play foundries – Chartered Semiconductor, TSMC, and UMC – as their primary sources of wafer manufacturing, accounting for more than 75% of business in 2001, according to the Survey.

“Forecasting, in general, is difficult for the semiconductor industry, and is exacerbated by today’s conditions of a weak economy, slowing end market demand and inventory problems as a result of the 2000 supply constraint conditions,” said Jodi Shelton, executive director of the FSA. We believe that fables companies have very little visibility, so we plant to conduct this Survey again in a few months, once companies have a handle on the second quarter.”

79% of total wafer demand will be for 0.25-micron, by 2002, growing from 66% in 2001, the FSA said. That figure’s up from 40% actual in 2000.

Fabless semiconductor companies’ revenues grew 68% in 2000, in contrast to the annual revenue growth in the worldwide semiconductor industry of only 36.8% in 2000. Fabless companies have consistently outperformed the overall semiconductor industry, and in 2000, gained market share as the fabless business model proved to be flexible and agile in meeting the increasing demand in 2000, the FSA said.