Mannerisms

Yet, in Q109, the industry was in despair. TI and National were laying off people in thousands. Visibility was zero. CEOs were reluctant to make forecasts about Q2.

"We have recovered from the recent global economic downturn more quickly than anticipated," says Lothar Maier, CEO of Linear Tech, "our growth has been broad-based with bookings strong throughout the quarter and our book-to-bill ratio for the quarter was once again firmly positive."

"Though it is likely that certain customers may have begun to restock inventory from unsustainably low levels, or have reacted to longer lead times within the industry, we believe that new programs at both new and existing customers as well as expanding end-customer demand at continuing programs have been the primary catalyst for our current growth", says Maier.

Unlike many of its rivals, LTC has kept its lead-times at 4-6 weeks and expects 7-10% revenue growth in Q2.

The same bullish expectancy applies at Intel where CEO Paul Otellini predicted another $10 billion plus revenue quarter in Q2 to follow the $10.3 billion quarter in Q1. He cited the return of corporate spending on PCs, driving demand for high-end processors, as the reason for the upturn in Intel's fortunes.

ASML's results are a two-edged sword. If they're bad, it means the device makers don't believe in the recovery, if they're very good, it means CEOs are wildly optimistic and will spend excessively on capacity and accelerate the next price downturn.

Eric Meurice, ASML's CEO, suggest the industry is taking a balanced, controlled view of  its fortunes.

"We calculate that the lithography systems sold in 2010 will add approximately 15% IC unit production capacity to the semiconductor market, conforming to the demand prediction of most industry analysts," says Meurice, "this controlled capacity increase supports the possibility of sustained growth in 2011 if IC unit growth continues per the historical trend."

Meurice expects ASML's 2010 year-end revenues will top the company's record €3.8 billion achieved in 2007.

Samsung's record profit quarter, if it comes, will be based on the rise in memory prices which are expected to have delivered half the entire company's profits - $2 billion out of total profits of $4 billion - in the last quarter. That, of itself, is one heck of a turnaround.

So it looks as if the CEOs are beginning to believe in the recovery.