Silicon Forest is a Washington County cluster of

high-tech High technology (high tech or high-tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or ...

companies located in the Portland metropolitan area in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. 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. The name is analogous to

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

. In the greater Portland area, these companies have traditionally specialized in hardware — specifically test-and-measurement equipment (

Tektronix Tektronix, Inc., 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 c ...

), computer chips (

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

and an array of smaller chip manufacturers), electronic displays (

InFocus InFocus Corporation is a privately owned American company based in the state of Oregon. Founded in 1986, the company develops, manufactures, and distributes Digital Light Processing, DLP and LCD Video projector, projectors and accessories as well ...

, Planar Systems and Pixelworks) and printers ( Hewlett-Packard Co,

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

and Epson). There is a small

clean technology Clean technology, also called cleantech or climate tech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant Efficient energy use, energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, o ...

emphasis in the area.

History

Silicon Forest can refer to all the technology companies in Oregon,Rogoway, Mike (April 9, 2006). Bizz blog: Silicon Forest. ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

''. 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. Lattice’s founder is sometimes mentioned as the person who came up with the term. The high-tech industry in the Portland area dates back to at least the 1940s, with

and Electro Scientific Industries as pioneers.Manaton, Michael E. (August 4, 1994). "Tektronix began 'Silicon Forest' boom". ''

'' (MetroWest edition). 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. 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 The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

. These three companies, and later

, led to the creation of a number of other spin-offs and

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to ...

s, 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. 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. Unlike other regions with a "silicon" appellation,

semiconductors A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping levels ...

truly are the heart of Oregon's tech industry. Intel's headquarters remain in

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Clare of Assisi, Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities and towns i ...

, 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; by 2022, the number had grown to about 22,000.

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

s (technology companies founded in Portland) is provided separately.

Current

* Act-On * Adtran (after acquired a startup named ”SmartRG”) * Aistock *

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( , an abbreviation of its original name, "Air Bed and Breakfast") is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays, experiences and services in various countries and regions. It acts as a ...

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...

(via acquisition of Elemental Technologies) * Ambric (acquired by Nethra Imaging in April 2009) *

Analog Devices Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), also known simply as Analog, is an American multinational corporation, multinational semiconductor company specializing in data conversion, signal processing, and power management technology, headquartered in Wilming ...

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

(Software Engineering in Vancouver, WA. This was previously the Claris products group) and a new R&D facility around Hillsboro. * Arris Group (via acquisition of C-COR) *

ASML Holding ASML Holding N.V. (commonly shortened to ASML, originally standing for Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography) is a Netherlands, Dutch multinational corporation that specializes in the development and manufacturing of photolithography mach ...

Atos Atos SE is a European multinational information technology (IT) service and consulting company with headquarters in Bezons suburb of Paris, France, and offices worldwide. It specialises in hi-tech transactional services, unified communicat ...

Autodesk Inc Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquarte ...

* Biotronik * Brandlive * Block-CashApp * Cambia Health Solutions (HealthSparq, Hubbub, and SpendWell) * Cascade Microtech *

CD Baby CD Baby, Inc. is a Portland, Oregon based online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. It was established in 1998 and offered distribution fo ...

* CollegeNET * Consumer Cellular * DAT Solutions * Digimarc *

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

* Electro Scientific Industries * EPSON * Expensify *

Extensis Celartem, Inc., doing business as Extensis, is a software company based in Portland, Oregon. History Extensis and its parent company ''CreativePro.com'' were sold to ''ImageX'' in year 2000, which in turn sold Extensis to Japanese content-manage ...

Thermo Fisher Scientific Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is an American life science and clinical research company. It is a global supplier of analytical instruments, clinical development solutions, specialty diagnostics, laboratory, pharmaceutical and biotechnology s ...

(via acquisition of FEI Company) *

FLIR Systems Teledyne FLIR LLC, formerly FLIR Systems Inc, (an acronym for " forward-looking infrared"), a subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies since January 2021, specializes in the design and production of thermal imaging cameras and sensors. Its main custo ...

* ForgeRock *

GemStone Systems GemStone/S is computer software, an application framework that was first available for the programming language Smalltalk as an object database. It is proprietary commercial software. Company history GemStone Systems was founded on March 1, 198 ...

Genentech Genentech, Inc. is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It operates as an independent subsidiary of holding company Roche. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent cent ...

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

* Grass Valley *

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

(by acquisition of Sequent) *

* Integra Telecom *IP Fabrics *

IXIA ''Ixia'' is a genus of cormous plants native to South Africa from the family Iridaceae. Some of them are known as the corn lily. Some distinctive traits include sword-like leaves and long wiry stems with star-shaped flowers. It usually prefers w ...

* Jaguar Land Rover *

Janrain Janrain, sometimes styled as JanRain, is a customer profile and identity management (CIAM) software provider based in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was established in 2002. Akamai acquired Janrain in January 2019. History Janrain was foun ...

* Kryptiq Corporation *

Kyocera is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power genera ...

* LaCie * Laika *

Lam Research Lam Research Corporation is an American supplier of wafer-fabrication equipment and related services to the semiconductor industry. Its products are used primarily in front-end wafer processing, which involves the steps that create the active ...

(through merging with Novellus Systems) * Lattice Semiconductor * Lightspeed Systems * Linear Technology * Logitech * Maxim Integrated Products *

McAfee McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American proprietary software company focused on online ...

Mentor Graphics Mentor Graphics Corporation was a US-based electronic design automation (EDA) multinational corporation for electrical engineering and electronics, headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon. Founded in 1981, the company distributed products that ass ...

Mozilla Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institution ...

Microchip Technology Microchip Technology Incorporated is a publicly listed American semiconductor corporation that manufactures microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog, and Flash-IP integrated circuits. Its corporate headquarters is located in Chandler, Arizona. ...

(purchased Fujitsu old facility) *

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, especially for hardware engineering design center * New Relic (Engineering Headquarters) *

Nike, Inc. Nike, Inc. (stylized as ''NIKE'') is an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, ...

(Consumer Digital Division) * Nvidia Corporation * NuScale Power * OpenSesame Inc *

ON Semiconductor ON Semiconductor Corporation (stylized and doing business as onsemi) is an American semiconductor supplier company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Products include power and signal management, logic, discrete, and custom devices for automotive, c ...

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...

(by acquisition of

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

) * Oregon Scientific *

Panic Software Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and frantic agitation consistent with a fight-or-flight reaction. ...

* PacStar * Phoseon Technology * Pivotal Labs * Pixelworks * Planar Systems *Pop Art, Inc. *

Puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...

* Qorvo * RadiSys Corporation * Razorfish *

Rentrak Rentrak Corporation is a global media measurement and research company serving the entertainment industry. Rentrak is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, US, with additional offices in the United States and around the world. In February 2016, co ...

* RFPIO * Rivos * Rohde & Schwarz *

Rockwell Collins Rockwell Collins, Inc. was a multinational corporation headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, providing avionics and information technology systems and services to government agencies and aircraft manufacturers. It was formed when the Collins Radi ...

* Sage Software (by the acquisition of Timberline) * Salesforce.com * Sensory, Inc. * SEH America *

Sharp Corporation is a Japanese electronics company. It is headquartered in Sakai, Osaka, and was founded by Tokuji Hayakawa in 1912 in Honjo, Tokyo, and established as the Hayakawa Metal Works Institute in Abeno-ku, Osaka, in 1924. Since 2016, it is majority o ...

* Silicon Labs * Siltronic *

Simple Simple or SIMPLE may refer to: *Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple Arts and entertainment * ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track * "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018 * "Simple", a song by John ...

* Shimadzu Corp. * Skyworks (by the acquisition of Avnera) * Smarsh * Sellgo *

SurveyMonkey SurveyMonkey Inc. (formerly Momentive Global Inc. from 2021 to 2023) is an experience management company that offers cloud-based software in brand insights, market insights, product experience, employee experience, customer experience, online sur ...

* Squarespace *

Synopsys Synopsys, Inc. is an American electronic design automation (EDA) company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that focuses on silicon design and verification, silicon intellectual property and software security and quality. Synopsys sup ...

* Tripwire * Urban Airship * Vacasa * Vape-Jet * VeriWave *

Vernier Software & Technology Vernier Science Education is an educational software company located in Beaverton, Oregon that produces sensor devices and graphing equipment. History Vernier Software & Technology was founded in 1981 in Portland, Oregon, at the home of David Ver ...

Vevo Vevo LLC ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized in all caps until 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available ...

* Wacom (North American Headquarters are based in Portland) * WaferTech (''

TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC or Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is one of the world's most valuable semiconductor companies, the world' ...

subsidiary'') * Webtrends *

WebMD WebMD is an American corporation which publishes online news and information about human health and well-being. The WebMD website also includes information about drugs and is an important healthcare information website and the most popular cons ...

* Welch Allyn * Workday, Inc *

* ZoomInfo

Former

BiiN BiiN Corporation was a company created out of a joint research project by Intel and Siemens to develop fault tolerant high-performance multi-processor computers build on custom microprocessor designs. BiiN was an outgrowth of the Intel iAPX 43 ...

(defunct) * Central Point Software (defunct) * ClearEdge Power * Etec Systems, Inc. (acquired by

Applied Materials Applied Materials, Inc. is an American corporation that supplies equipment, services and software for the manufacture of semiconductor (integrated circuit) chips for electronics, flat panel displays for computers, smartphones, televisions, and ...

) * Floating Point Systems (defunct) * Fujitsu (factory closed, sold to

)Read, Richard (March 7, 2004). "Racing the world". ''

''. * Jive Software (acquired & closed) * MathStar (defunct) * Merix Corporation (acquired by Viasystems) *Microsoft's Surface Hub R&D (closed down) * nCUBE. Beaverton HQ was established in 1983. Acquired by C-COR in 2005, which was in turn acquired by ARRIS in 2007.

CommScope CommScope Holding Company, Inc. is an American network infrastructure provider based in Claremont, North Carolina. CommScope employs over 22,000 employees. The company joined the Nasdaq stock exchange on October 25, 2013. CommScope designs an ...

acquired ARRIS in 2019, and closed the Beaverton office in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. *

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

(factory closed) * Open Source Development Labs (defunct) * Oregon Graduate Institute (merged with OHSU in 2001; Washington County campus closed in 2014) *

Sequent Computer Systems Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. was a computer company that designed and manufactured multiprocessing computer systems. They were among the pioneers in high-performance symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) Open system (computing), open systems, innovatin ...

(purchased by IBM in 1993) Sequent, founded by a team that included three Intel VPs and 15 other employees, also mostly from Intel, made a major contribution to multiprocessing and was largely responsible for the demise of large minicomputers, which could be replaced by much smaller and cheaper micro-processor-based multiprocessor systems. It went public in 1987 and was beginning to also encroach on the market for large mainframe transaction processing systems when IBM bought it out. * SolarWorld * SunPower (in former SolarWorld facility)

References

External links