Text Box: Inventories rose to $24.2B in September, up 2.4% from August's $23.7B. The September I:B ratio fell to 1.1 from 1.3 in August. The overall IC inventory level has been gradually increasing since June. OEMS are holding more inventory as die banks have been shrinking since peaking in the June/July period. This is normal for this time of the year because OEMs need to build inventories for the holiday buying season. The overall I:B ratio remains within the healthy band of 1.0-1.5. --Aida
 
                                                     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Definitions note[1] Last Update: 22-Oct-07 TCI 71112.03  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Text Box: For August, VLSI's preliminary numbers for IC inventories fell to an I:B ratio of 1.2, versus 1.3 in the prior month. Total inventories were $20.9B, while July's final numbers were revised to $20.0B. Most of August's inventory rise came in Die Banks, while OEM inventory was up only slightly. The I:B ratio decline against this reflects that August is the start of the Christmas build cycle. There is a large safety margin from the 1.5 I:B hard ceiling. -- Dan
[1]
OEM IC Inventories include all inventories of ICs in the OEM electronic supply chain from the chip maker's point-of-sale to the retailer's point-of-sale.

Die Banks include inventories of ICs held by chip makers.  Called die banks, because these are typically probed IC's that are held before assembly and test.