51.   The defense unit looked less like deadweight than a bulwark against the risks the company endured in the chip business.

52.   The notion is that high profit margins on Merced chips can offset increasingly narrow margins in the competitive middle and lower reaches of the chip business.

53.   The Schaumburg, Illinois-based company said most of the sales decline was in its chip business, although orders during the quarter picked up.

54.   The wireless strategy may also decide the fate of the chip business as a continuing Motorola operation.

55.   Those statements touched off a flurry of speculation by industry analysts, many of whom said the chip business would almost certainly be sent packing.

56.   Toshiba Corp., a major Japanese chipmaker, reversed course today and announced that it will walk away from the commodity memory chip business.

57.   Top executives have put the chip business on notice that it must return to profitability and cease being a financial drain.

58.   TOSHIBA TO EXIT COMMODITY CHIPS Toshiba, the Japanese chip-maker, announced that it would exit the commodity memory chip business.

59.   When the wireless phone business gets hurt, the chip business usually takes it on the chin.

60.   When top management finally realizes that, Strauss reasons, the chip business will be too important for the company to jettison.