Silicon Forest

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Intel's Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro, Oregon Intel Ronler Acres Hillsboro Oregon.JPG
Intel's Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro, Oregon

Silicon Forest is a Washington County cluster of high-tech companies located in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. The term most frequently refers to the industrial corridor between Beaverton and Hillsboro in northwest Oregon. The high-technology industry accounted for 19 percent of Oregon's economy in 2005, and the Silicon Forest name has been applied to the industry throughout the state in such places as Corvallis, Bend, and White City. Nevertheless, the name refers primarily to the Portland metropolitan area, where about 1,500 high-tech firms were located as of 2006. [1]

Contents

The name is analogous to Silicon Valley. In the greater Portland area, these companies have traditionally specialized in hardware — specifically test-and-measurement equipment (Tektronix), computer chips (Intel and an array of smaller chip manufacturers), electronic displays (InFocus, Planar Systems and Pixelworks) and printers (Hewlett-Packard Co, Xerox and Epson). There is a small clean technology emphasis in the area. [2]

History

Mentor (A Siemens Business) headquarters in Wilsonville Mentor Graphics entrance.JPG
Mentor (A Siemens Business) headquarters in Wilsonville

Silicon Forest can refer to all the technology companies in Oregon, [3] but initially referred to 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 but does not use the term in its marketing materials. [3] Lattice’s founder is sometimes mentioned as the person who came up with the term. [3]

The high-tech industry in the Portland area dates back to at least the 1940s, with Tektronix and Electro Scientific Industries as pioneers. [4] Tektronix and ESI both started out in Portland proper, but moved to Washington County in 1951 and 1962, respectively, and developed sites designed to attract other high-tech companies. [4] Floating Point Systems, co-founded by three former Tektronix employees in Beaverton in 1970, was the first spin-off company in Silicon Forest and the third (after Tek and ESI) to be traded on the NYSE. [5] These three companies, and later Intel, led to the creation of a number of other spin-offs and startups, some of which were remarkably successful. A 2003 dissertation on these spin-offs led to a poster depicting the genealogy of 894 Silicon Forest companies. [6] High-tech employment in the state reached a peak of almost 73,000 in 2001, but has never recovered from the dot-com bust. Statewide, tech employment totaled 57,000 in the spring of 2012. [7]

Unlike other regions with a "silicon" appellation, semiconductors truly are the heart of Oregon's tech industry.

Intel's headquarters remain in Santa Clara, California, but in the 1990s the company began moving its most advanced technical operations to Oregon. Its Ronler Acres campus eventually became its most advanced anywhere, and Oregon is now Intel's largest operating hub. In late 2012, Intel had close to 17,000 employees in Oregon—more than anywhere else the company operated; [8] by 2022, the number had grown to about 22,000. [9]

Companies and subsidiaries

The following is a sample of past and present notable companies in the Silicon Forest. They may have been founded in the Silicon Forest or have a major subsidiary there. A list of Portland tech startups (technology companies founded in Portland) is provided separately.

Current

Genentech facility in Hillsboro Genentech Hillsboro Oregon.JPG
Genentech facility in Hillsboro

Former

Former SolarWorld US headquarters in Hillsboro, which closed in 2017 and was later used by SunPower, until 2021 SolarWorld-Hillsboro.jpg
Former SolarWorld US headquarters in Hillsboro, which closed in 2017 and was later used by SunPower, until 2021

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillsboro, Oregon</span> City in Oregon, United States

Hillsboro is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Situated in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city hosts many high-technology companies, such as Intel, locally known as the Silicon Forest. The population was 106,447 at the 2020 census, making Hillsboro the 5th most populous city in Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tektronix</span> American test and measurement devices company

Tektronix, historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent company, it is now a subsidiary of Fortive, a spinoff from Danaher Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Floating Point Systems</span>

Floating Point Systems, Inc. (FPS), was a Beaverton, Oregon vendor of attached array processors and minisupercomputers. The company was founded in 1970 by former Tektronix engineer Norm Winningstad, with partners Tom Prince, Frank Bouton and Robert Carter. Carter was a salesman for Data General Corp. who persuaded Bouton and Prince to leave Tektronix to start the new company. Winningstad was the fourth partner.

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation is an American semiconductor company specializing in the design and manufacturing of low power field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Headquartered in the Silicon Forest area of Hillsboro, Oregon, the company also has operations in San Jose, Calif., Shanghai, Manila, Penang, and Singapore. Lattice Semiconductor has more than 1000 employees and an annual revenue of more than $660 million as of 2022. The company was founded in 1983 and went public in 1989. It is traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol LSCC.

Planar Systems, Inc. is an American digital display manufacturing corporation with a facility in Hillsboro, Oregon. Founded in 1983 as a spin-off from Tektronix, it was the first U.S. manufacturer of electroluminescent (EL) digital displays. Planar currently makes a variety of other specialty displays, and has been an independent subsidiary of Leyard Optoelectronic Co. since 2015. The headquarters, leadership team and employees still remain in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Radisys Corporation is an American technology company located in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States that makes technology used by telecommunications companies in mobile networks. Founded in 1987 in Oregon by former employees of Intel, the company went public in 1995. The company's products are used in mobile network applications such as small cell radio access networks, wireless core network elements, deep packet inspection and policy management equipment; conferencing, and media services including voice, video and data. In 2015, the first-quarter revenues of Radisys totaled $48.7 million, and approximately employed 700 people. Arun Bhikshesvaran is the company's chief executive officer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merix Corporation</span>

Merix Corporation was an American printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer based in Beaverton, Oregon. Prior to a merger in 2010 with Viasystems, the company had been the 31st largest public company in Oregon based on market capitalization as of 2006. The company is now part of TTM Technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TriQuint Semiconductor</span> American semiconductor company

TriQuint Semiconductor was a semiconductor company that designed, manufactured, and supplied high-performance RF modules, components and foundry services. The company was founded in 1985 in Beaverton, Oregon before moving to neighboring Hillsboro, Oregon. In February 2014, Greensboro, North Carolina-based RF Micro Devices and TriQuint announced a merger in which the new company would be Qorvo, Inc., with the merger completed on January 1, 2015.

Elemental was an American software company based in Portland, Oregon, and active from 2006 to 2015. It was founded by three engineers formerly of the semiconductor company Pixel works: Sam Blackman (CEO), Jesse Rosenzweig (CTO), and Brian Lewis. In 2015, it was acquired by Amazon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of Oregon</span>

The economy of the U.S. state of Oregon is made up of a number of sectors. During the 1990s and 2000s, Oregon has attempted to transition its economy from one based on natural resources to one based on a mix of manufacturing, services, and high technology.

The OGI School of Science and Engineering, located in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States was one of four schools at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). Until June 2001, it functioned independently as a private graduate school, the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science & Technology (OGI). OGI operated four departments and had approximately 330 students. In 2008, the school's name was changed to the Department of Science and Engineering and by 2010, the department was dissolved and the academic programs and research were disseminated to other OHSU institutes and departments.

Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (ESI) is an American high technology company headquartered in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area, specifically in Beaverton, Oregon, since 2021, but from 1963–2021, it was based in the unincorporated Cedar Mill area just north of Beaverton. ESI is a developer and supplier of photonic and laser systems for microelectronics manufacturers. Founded in 1944, it is the oldest high-tech company in Oregon. Along with Tektronix, and later Intel, it has spawned numerous technology-based companies in the Portland area, an area known as the Silicon Forest. From 1983 to 2019, shares in the company were publicly traded on NASDAQ, under the ticker symbol ESIO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norm Winningstad</span> American engineer and businessman

C. Norman (Norm) Winningstad was an American engineer and businessman in the state of Oregon. A native of California, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before working at what is now Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. After moving north to Oregon, he started working for Tektronix before starting several companies in what became the Silicon Forest in the Portland metropolitan area. He founded or helped to found Floating Point Systems, Lattice Semiconductor, and Thrustmaster. Winningstad and his wife were also noted philanthropists in the Portland area, with a theater at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts named in his wife Dolores' honor.

Cascade Microtech is a semiconductor test equipment manufacturer based in Beaverton in the Portland metropolitan area of the United States. Founded in 1983, the Oregon-based company employs nearly 400 people. Formerly publicly traded company as CSCD on the NASDAQ, the company is now fully merged with FormFactor, Inc.

New Relic, Inc. is an American web tracking and analytics company based in San Francisco. The company's cloud-based software allows websites and mobile apps to track user interactions and service operators' software and hardware performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Act-On</span> American software company

Act-On Software is a software-as-a-service product for marketing automation. The company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon and was founded in 2008, originally retailing its software exclusively through Cisco, which provided $2 million in funding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enli Health Intelligence</span>

Enli Health Intelligence was a privately held software company based in Beaverton, Oregon, and previously in Hillsboro, Oregon. Founded in 2001 as Kryptiq Corporation, the company specialized in electronic medical records and secure communications between physicians and patients. The 125-employee company was purchased by Surescripts in 2012, which was a previous investor in the company. Annual revenues at the time of the sale were approximately $25 million. In January 2015, the company announced that it was splitting from Surescripts and becoming independent again. Later in 2015, it was renamed Enli Health Intelligence. In 2021, it was acquired by Cedar Gate Technologies, which discontinued use of the Enli name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portland Incubator Experiment</span> Business incubator in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

The Portland Incubator Experiment, often abbreviated as PIE or PIE PDX or stylized as Pie, is a business incubator based in Portland, Oregon that provides mentorship and resources to select startup companies. Co-founded by Renny Gleeson and Rick Turoczy, PIE is run by the Portland-based advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy (W+K). The program was informally launched in 2009 before converting to a formal structure in 2011. PIE participants are chosen by a selection committee, following an application process. Startups receive seed money and spend three months developing their businesses with support from W+K and participating mentors. Companies that have provided financial assistance and mentorship include The Coca-Cola Company, Google, Intel, Nike, Inc. and Target Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qorvo</span> American technology company

Qorvo, Inc. is an American multinational company specializing in products for wireless, wired, and power markets. The company was created by the merger of TriQuint Semiconductor and RF Micro Devices, which was announced in 2014 and completed on January 1, 2015. It trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol QRVO. The headquarters for the company originally were in both Hillsboro, Oregon, and Greensboro, North Carolina, but in mid-2016 the company began referring to its North Carolina site as its exclusive headquarters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oregon Venture Fund</span> Venture capital fund

Oregon Venture Fund makes venture investments in the Portland, Oregon area and throughout Oregon and SW Washington. The fund consists of 180 institutional and angel investors, of whom 85% have run or founded a business. The fund evaluates up to 300 business plans per year, selecting five to seven to invest in annually. In 2018, the fund changed its name from Oregon Angel Fund to Oregon Venture Fund and launched a new $30M fund. Since its inception, Oregon Venture Fund has generated an average annual rate of return of 34% and a return on investment exceeding $3.50 for each dollar invested.

References

  1. ↑ "Oregon Silicon Forest". The Oregon Encyclopedia. July 24, 2024. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  2. ↑ Alpern, Peter (October 4, 2010). "Portland Cultivates Future as Hub for Manufacturing Alternative Energy". IndustryWeek. Archived from the original on October 30, 2010. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 Rogoway, Mike (April 9, 2006). Bizz blog: Silicon Forest. The Oregonian .
  4. 1 2 Manaton, Michael E. (August 4, 1994). "Tektronix began 'Silicon Forest' boom". The Oregonian (MetroWest edition).
  5. ↑ G.B. Dodds, C.E. Wollner & M.M. Lee, The Silicon Forest, Oregon Historical Society Press, 1990, pp. 46-55.
  6. ↑ "Silicon Forest Universe". Portland State University: The Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
  7. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (July 26, 2012). "Investment in Oregon tech companies heats up, but employment hasn't bounced back". The Oregonian.
  8. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (October 25, 2012). "Intel makes a bet on the future, and Oregon, with massive Hillsboro expansion". The Oregonian.
  9. ↑ Davidson, Kate (March 15, 2022). "Oregon's largest private employer, Intel, announces plans to expand in Europe". OPB. Archived from the original on March 16, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  10. ↑ "ADTRAN Acquires SmartRG—Leading Provider of Connected Home Software Platforms & Cloud Services". December 18, 2018. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  11. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (May 30, 2018). "Apple quietly opens Oregon engineering lab, poaches from Intel". The Oregonian . Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Rogoway, Mike (September 2010). "Silicon Forest 25 - 2010" (PDF). The Oregonian . Retrieved September 20, 2010.
  13. ↑ Cathy Cheney (November 26, 2014). "Cool Spaces: Inside eBay's growing Portland office, which has a personality all its own". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  14. ↑ About Epson Portland Inc. Archived October 7, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Epson Portland Inc. Retrieved on October 8, 2007.
  15. ↑ "Expensify - Preaccounting & Spend Management Software". Expensify - Expense Management.
  16. ↑ Spencer, Malia (August 25, 2017). "Why Expensify Picked Portland". Portland Business Journal.
  17. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (April 5, 2010). "Genentech opens in Hillsboro, fueling Oregon's biotech aspirations". The Oregonian . Retrieved June 19, 2010.
  18. 1 2 Tims, Dana (December 8, 2005). "Metro West Neighbors: Emerging suburb built on silicon". The Oregonian. p. 9.
  19. ↑ Suh, Elizabeth (October 28, 2007). "Intel's impact on community helps other businesses thrive". The Oregonian .
  20. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (April 12, 2015). "A look inside Jaguar Land Rover's Portland research lab". OregonLive.
  21. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (June 15, 2010). "Kryptiq sets move as it adds employees". The Oregonian.
  22. ↑ "Kyocera opens $10M Vancouver facility". The Columbian . April 20, 2017. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  23. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (May 17, 2006). "Laika's place in the Silicon Forest". The Oregonian.
  24. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (July 18, 2013). "Mozilla will expand Portland office, add staff and lease its own space". The Oregonian . Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  25. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (January 27, 2021). "Microsoft poaches Intel VP for big new Hillsboro engineering site". The Oregonian . Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  26. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (May 14, 2010). "Chip manufacturers plan to grow, Hillsboro rebounds: Silicon Forest week in review". The Oregonian . Retrieved June 20, 2010.
  27. ↑ The Oregonian (March 12, 2010). "2010 Oregon Technology Awards finalists named". The Oregonian . Retrieved March 14, 2010.
  28. ↑ Siemers, Erik (November 29, 2011). "Google, Cisco, VMware invest $8.5M in Puppet Labs". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  29. ↑ "Apple lawsuit against chipmaking startup Rivos alleges theft of trade secrets". SiliconANGLE. May 2, 2022. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
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  31. ↑ "Locations". Sharp Laboratories of America.[ permanent dead link ]
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  33. ↑ "Skyworks - Home". skyworksinc.com.
  34. ↑ Fritz, Justin (November 8, 2011). "Why App Developers Are Hitching a Ride on Urban Airship". Wall St. Daily. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
  35. ↑ "Vape-Jet". vape-jet.com. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
  36. ↑ Venture Capitalists loosen purse strings for startups Portland Business Journal. Retrieved on July 23, 2010
  37. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (July 27, 2017). "Vevo, music video titan, grows Portland engineering outpost". The Oregonian .
  38. ↑ Kosseff, Jeffrey (May 14, 2002). "Xerox's Wilsonville unit continues to make strides". The Oregonian. p. C1.
  39. ↑ Siemers, Erik (December 18, 2009). "ClearEdge hums along". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved February 18, 2010.
  40. 1 2 Read, Richard (March 7, 2004). "Racing the world". The Oregonian .
  41. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (May 1, 2018). "Jive Software: A Cautionary Tale". The Oregonian.
  42. ↑ Marum, Anna (July 11, 2017). "Microsoft to close Wilsonville plant, lay off 124 workers". OregonLive.
  43. 1 2 Pursinger, Geoff (October 15, 2018). "Here comes the sun: SunPower takes over SolarWorld plant". Portland Tribune . Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  44. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (January 7, 2021). "SunPower will close former SolarWorld factory in Hillsboro, lay off 170". The Oregonian . Retrieved March 19, 2022.
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