Silicon Glen

Encyclopedia : S : SI : SIL : Silicon Glen

Silicon Glen is a nickname for the high tech sector of Scotland. The name is applied to the Central Belt triangle between Dundee, Inverclyde, and Edinburgh, and includes Fife, Glasgow and Stirling; although electronics facilities outwith this central area may also be included in the term. It does not represent a glen as it covers a much wider area than just one valley (perhaps strath would be a more accurate adjective), however the name was probably based upon "Silicon Valley" and has been in use in Scotland since the 1980s.

Contents

1 History
2 Today
3 Notable companies
4 Universities
5 External links
6 See also

History

Silicon Glen had its origins in the electronics business with IBM being one of the first companies to set up when it established a manufacturing base in Greenock in 1951. Indeed this was typical of much of the early days of Silicon Glen, which were dominated by electronics manufacturing for foreign companies much more than software development or the establishment of home grown companies.

The emphasis on electronics came about due to the decline in traditional Scottish heavy industries such as shipbuilding and mining. The government development agencies saw electronics manufacturing as being a positive replacement for people made redundant through heavy industry closures and the associated training and reskilling was relatively easy to achieve. There were some notable successes from this investment, such as the large Sun Microsystems plant in Linlithgow and the Digital Equipment Corporation manufacturing plant in South Queensferry where the pioneering 64 bit Alpha processor was made. Digital also started an office in Livingston developing their flagship VAX/VMS operating system. It is estimated that the manufacturing sector produces approximately 30% of Europe's PC's, 80% of its Workstations, and 65% of its ATM's.

Today

The heavy dependency on electronics manufacturing hit Silicon Glen hard after the collapse of the hi-tech economy in 2000. Viasystems, National Semiconductor, Motorola and Chunghwa all laid off substantial numbers of employees or closed factories completely. Digital sold their Alpha facility to Motorola who eventually closed it down. Motorola also closed their factory in Bathgate and the substantial NEC plant in Livingston was also closed.

However, there are many promising signs as well as a recognition that diversification away from electronics and manufacturing produces a more balanced and stronger economy. There is also more of an interest in encouraging home grown talent.

In order to diversify away from electronics and manufacturing, the development agencies now see Call Centres as being a potential area of growth, but there is also substantial interest in the software development industry, including Rockstar North, developers of the market leading Grand Theft Auto series. There is also a dynamic and fast growing electronics design and development industry, based around links between the universities and indigenous companies like [Wolfson], Linn, [Nallatech] and [Axeon], and projects like [Alba Campus]. However, the software sector has also notably attracted Amazon.com to set up a software development centre in Edinburgh, the first such centre outside the US. There remains a significant presence of global players like National Semiconductor, IBM and Motorola. Today Silicon Glen based companies directly employ over 41,000 people in the sector.

Notable companies

Many high technology companies are established in Silicon Glen, including: Sun Microsystems, Motorola, Agilent, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle Corporation, Cadence Design Systems, 3Com, Adobe Systems, National Semiconductor and Atos Origin

Universities

External links