21.   Mitsubishi Electric Corp. joined Hitachi Ltd. in predicting that profits will fall this year because of the slump in the chip market.

22.   NEC said in a statement it will have to deal with the unpredictable nature of the world chip market and uncertainties over the state of the U.S. economy.

23.   Similarly, the other chipmakers are looking for new sources of profits to balance the dizzying ups and downs of the memory chip market.

24.   Texas Instruments said it still expects the worldwide chip market to grow explosively until the end of the century.

25.   The DRAM market was the fastest-growing part of the chip market last year.

26.   The encryption chip market, still in its early stages, is expected to expand in the next few years.

27.   The DRAM market, which was the fastest-growing segment of the chip market last year, has since weakened, with inventories swelling and prices falling.

28.   The group expects all the conditions that have dragged down the chip market to reverse course by near year.

29.   The overall chip market is still growing.

30.   The ratio is used to measure the health of the North American chip market by comparing the value of new orders to the value of chips shipped.