This brief article from Ars Technica reports that semi manufacturers are reporting bigger sales for the first half of this year, vs. 2009.

The SIA reports a 50 percent jump in sales vs. 2009, which puts chip sales a bit above their previous 2008 peak—in other words, a return to the long-term growth trend, with 2009’s v-shaped fall-off and then recovery looking like a blip on an otherwise upwards-pointing curve.

The last time semiconductor sales tanked this hard, in the wake of the dotcom bubble, it took four years for them to rebound off their lows and make new highs. So the fact that the drop and then full rebound happened over the course of one year is quite remarkable.

However, one of the user comments to this article wisely points out that a lot of this may be due to pent up demand, as opposed to new demand from newer products, and that it will subside again. At the mention of pent-up demand, I can’t help but remember the ATMega328 drought that got everybody in a tizzy about 7 months ago. So what do you think?