Silicon Forest

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This article is about an area in Northwestern United States. For the district in Novosibirsk, Russia, see Akademgorodok.

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Silicon Forest is a nickname and specifically refers to the cluster of high tech companies located in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Southwest Washington, and most frequently refers to the industrial corridor between Beaverton and Hillsboro in northwest Oregon.

The name is similar to Silicon Valley in California's San Francisco Bay Area. However in greater Portland, these companies specialize in Output devices like displays and printers, along with Software related materials.

[edit] History

The term Silicon Forest can refer to all the technology companies in Oregon,[1] but often is in reference only to those in Washington County on Portland’s west side. First used in a Japanese company’s press release dating to 1981, Lattice Semiconductor trademarked the term in 1984.[1] Lattice’s founder is sometimes mentioned as the person who came up with the term, but the company does not use the trademark on products[1]

The high-tech industry in the Portland area dates back to at least the 1940s, with Tektronix and Electro Scientific Industries as pioneers.[citation needed] These two companies, and later Intel, led to the creation of a number of spin-offs or start-ups, some of which were remarkably successful. A 2003 dissertation on these spin-offs led to a poster depicting the genealogy of Silicon Forest companies.[2] High tech employment in the state reached a peak of almost 73,000 in 2001, but has declined nearly 20% to 58,000 in 2008.[3]

[edit] Companies and subsidiaries

The following is a partial list of past and present companies founded in the Silicon Forest or which have a major subsidiary located there:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Rogoway, Mike. Bizz blog: Silicon Forest. The Oregonian, April 9, 2006.
  2. ^ Mapping the Silicon Forest Universe. Portland State University: The Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies. Retrieved on 2008-04-22.
  3. ^ Rogoway, Mike. High-tech's no longer Oregon's high point. The Oregonian, April 20, 2008.

[edit] External links

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