According to a report from Reuters , asked on the eve of the company's Intel Developer Forum in Beijing when he expected to see a recovery, Barrett said the stimulus packages being rolled out by governments around the globe would probably have an impact over the next six to 18 months, but added it was tough to when the semiconductor market will recover.

"So you pick your time that you want the recovery to occur in that six to 18-month period, and your guess is as good as anyone's," he said at the IDF.

Late last week, the Semiconductor Industry Association said the three-month average of worldwide sales of semiconductors declined by 30.4 percent to $14.17 billion in February, compared to $20.3 billion in February 2008, based on figures from the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS).

The decline was steeper than the 28.6 percent annual drop to $15.33 billion reported in January, but was in line with expectations giving some hope that the precipitous drop in semiconductor sales has stopped, ushering in a period of stability. Ian Yang, president of Intel China, said at the event the company was proceeding on schedule with a new $2.5 billion factory in Dalian, in north-eastern China.

At this week's IDF Intel unveiled 2GHz versions of its Atom processor and disclosed, for the first time, the Nehalem- based processor codenamed 'Jasper Forest' that is targeted at embedded and storage applications.