Non-Memory Chip Designers Optimistic About 2002.

Prospects are mixed for Taiwan's chip makers in 2002, with those specializing in non-memory chips being optimistic and those that concentrate on memory products issuing cautious forecasts. Non-memory designers, including MediaTek Corp. (Taiwan's top designer of chips for storage media players), VIA Technologies Inc. (the world's second-largest chipset brand, after Intel), Realtek Semiconductor Co. (networking chips), Sunplus Technology Co. (multimedia chips), and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) Corp. (another chipset heavyweight), predict improved revenues and earnings in 2002. Both MediaTek and SiS are forecast to have first-quarter revenues better than those reported for the last quarter of 2001, despite the fact that the first quarter is normally a slack season. MediaTek itself has not issued the relevant figures, but local …