1.   Chip manufacturers, as well as other hardware players such as makers of fiber optics and phones, have been hammered by an inventory glut.

2.   Compaq struggled with an inventory glut last year as it moved to adopt a build-to-order system.

3.   Jim Halpin, president of Austin, Texas-based CompUSA, said he saw few signs of an inventory glut on the PC side.

4.   That growth was hidden by the inventory glut that hung over the sector for the first two quarters, he said.

5.   That, coupled with longer than normal lag times in completing customer orders, made for an inventory glut of expensive computer routers and servers.

6.   The inventory glut cost Digital tens of millions of dollars over the next few months as it discovered similar practices had occurred in other parts of the company.

7.   The technology sector, especially computer-makers who have worked out of their inventory glut, will continue to rebound.

8.   This unprecedented stability in sales is saving the industry billions of dollars, mostly by avoiding the kind of inventory gluts that come with downturns.

9.   They said PC manufacturers appeared to have worked through an inventory glut, which had depressed microprocessor sales in previous quarters.

10.   Chip makers and other businesses will also have had a year or so to reduce inventory gluts.