To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts.
-- From "Naming of Parts," by Henry Reed, 1942

Semiconductor makers -- and really, any manufacturing industry -- pay lots of attention to their book-to-bill ratios. Simply put, when that metric climbs above 1.0, the company gets incoming orders faster than it can make, ship, and bill for them. Orders outweighing shipments is generally a sign of strong product demand.

For Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), a high book-to-bill ratio is a mixed blessing right now. First-quarter sales jumped 54% year-over-year to $3.2 billion while order bookings used a trampoline to reach 66% growth at $3.6 billion. That all-important ratio now stands at 1.14, which is a tad too good.

Smartphones and other mobile devices have become a major driver of TI's business. In order to keep up with the rampant order inflow from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM), and others, TI has been building out its famously lean manufacturing capacity during the downturn. "Production output is at an all-time high," says the company -- and continuing to increase, with another chip-making facility coming online before the end of the year.

That's where TI's asset-light strategy becomes a strength that sets TI apart from fabless chip designers like QUALCOMM (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM), who outsource all of their manufacturing to third-party foundries in the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) mold. Smartphone demand has created serious manufacturing shortages across the industry as the foundries struggle to fill orders from a lynch mob of impatient chip-design firms. TI is a part of that mob, but can also crank up its own manufacturing efforts a bit when the need arises.

So times are good in Texas. Sales exceeded every reasonable expectation and $0.52 of earnings per share landed at the high end of management guidance. And judging from that bloated book-to-bill metric, the train should keep a-rolling for several quarters.

Would you buy Texas Instruments today, or can you come up with any better ways to ride the smartphone wave? Discuss in the comments below.