The second largest chip maker in the U.S. raised the mid-point of its first quarter revenue guidance by about US$50 million compared to its previous forecast, to between $1.79 billion and $2.05 billion.

"The upside is most notable in embedded processing and analog communications infrastructure products that are being driven by China 3G programs," said Ron Slaymaker, a vice president at Texas Instruments, in a conference call.

China is the world's largest mobile phone market in the world, with 641.23 million subscribers as of the end of last year.

The construction of China's 3G (third generation mobile telecommunications) network, which is a priority alongside the government's 4 trillion Chinese yuan (US$585 billion) economic stimulus package, is lifting a number of communications chip makers.

Altera and Xilinx of the U.S. and MediaTek of Taiwan are among companies that last week revised their quarterly revenue guidance up because of increased orders related to telecommunications spending in China.