World chip sales hit $21.4bn in September, up 4.2 per cent on August's total and 9.3 per cent on September 2005's tally, the US-based Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said yesterday. The month's sales brought the quarterly total to $64.1bn.

That's up eight per cent on Q3 2005's $59.3bn. September's sales also contributed to an 8.5 per cent increase in sales for the first nine months of the year, up from 2005's $142bn to $154bn.

Chips for phones and memory products proved popular buys during September, the latter thanks to PC vendors upping system RAM levels in preparation for the demands of Windows Vista. But CPU sales were down year on year, by 11 per cent, though up four per cent on August's figure. DRAM sales, by contrast, were up ten per cent sequentially and 40 per cent year on year. ®