SAN FRANCISCO — Intel last week became the latest chipmaker to suggest that the next six months will be solid for the semiconductor industry but not as spectacular as some investors hoped.

The chip giant said it expects revenue of $8.7 billion to $9.3 billion in the current quarter. The midpoint of that range is up slightly from a year ago and a little better than Wall Street analysts on average had expected.

After a successful 2006, the chip industry's hopes were high for a blockbuster 2007. Consumer electronic sales are forecast to jump 7 percent from 2006, says the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group. And PC sales had been expected to get a huge boost from the long-delayed release of Microsoft's new operating system, Vista. (A business edition of Vista came out in November; a consumer version launches this month.)

Such optimism has helped drive the Philadelphia Semiconductor index up 20 percent since its most recent low in July.

But reports from Intel and others now suggest that sales increases will be more modest and will come later in the year.

Intel's chief rival, Advanced Micro Devices, warned last week that its fourth-quarter operating income (excluding acquisition-related items) is expected to be "substantially lower" than in the previous quarter. Texas Instruments lowered its earnings forecast, citing broad weakness. Smaller chipmakers such as National Semiconductor, Xilinx and Altera also lowered estimates.

Investor expectations were just "too aggressive," Daniel Berenbaum, equity analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group, said in a recent research note.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini said that Vista has had little impact on sales so far, but he is "optimistic" about future benefits.

In the fourth quarter, Intel reported revenue of $9.7 million, down 5 percent from a year ago. Revenue fell because Intel pushed lower-priced chips in the face of competition from AMD, says computer analyst Samir Bhavnani at Current Analysis.

Vista's delayed launch date had a big impact on computer sales, says chip analyst Dean McCarron at Mercury Research. Businesses rarely rush out to buy a new, untested product. And most consumers wait to buy PCs until the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons, he says.

That creates the possibility of an uptick later in the year, he said.