The unstoppable chip revolution

By Louis Navellier

RENO, Nev. (MarketWatch) -- How many e-mails did you send yesterday? Did you use an ATM to deposit a check, undergo a digital medical test or use a GPS device to find a friend's house? If you did any of these things, you used those tiny pieces of silicon that have revolutionized the way we live.

Electronic devices keep getting smaller, faster and more versatile with each passing day. And this simply could not happen without continued innovations based on rapid advances in microprocessors and semiconductors.

With each passing day, the uses for these chips continue to grow. At the beginning of June, worldwide semiconductor sales have soared 67.1% after bottoming out in February 2009, led by an 89.7% surge in New World sales (a.k.a. the Asia-Pacific region). Semiconductor bookings are nearly six times above the level of a year ago, while shipments have more than tripled over the same period.

With Apple Inc.'s red-hot iPad spurring the next generation of personal electronics, along with other high-tech innovations such as 3-D televisions and electric cars, we are right in the middle of a semiconductor revolution.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/three-semiconductor-stocks-for-july-2010-07-01