SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel Corp. chief executive Paul Otellini offered a few words of encouragement to a battered market, saying the world's largest chipmaker is seeing "a pattern of purchases emerge again that's more predictable."

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Otellini said, "I'm not saying we know where the bottom is or that we've hit bottom (but) the predictability is starting to come back into the system. ... I think you have seen the global shock and now people are starting to figure out how to work out of it."

Most analysts predict a dire 2008 for semiconductor sales. Gartner, for example, says global semiconductor revenue will fall 24% this year. SEMI's latest market research showed the equipment book-to-bill down to 0.48, well below the 1.0 baseline indicating future growth.

Otellini said he sees near-term growth in netbooks, the low-cost, stripped-down versions of notebook PCs. 

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