Silicon Glen

Silicon Glen is a nickname for the high tech sector of Scotland, the name inspired by Silicon Valley in California. It is applied to the Central Belt triangle between Dundee, Inverclyde and Edinburgh, which includes Fife, Glasgow and Stirling; although electronics facilities outside this area may also be included in the term. The term has been in use since the 1980s. It does not technically represent a glen as it covers a much wider area than just one valley. Silicon Glen had its origins in the electronics business with Ferranti establishing a plant in Edinburgh in 1943, relocating facilities from Manchester during the Second World War. When Ferranti remained in Edinburgh, other defence electronics companies also established themselves in Scotland, including the Marconi Company and Barr & Stroud. Major US companies followed in the late 1940s, including Honeywell and NCR Corporation, the latter setting up cash register and adding machine manufacturing in Dundee. IBM decided to establish a presence in the region in 1951, opening a manufacturing facility in Greenock in 1953. 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 research and 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. Like the bedrock of Silicon Valley was in semiconductors, Silicon Glen also had a significant influence in semiconductor design and manufacturing starting in 1960 with Hughes Aircraft (now Raytheon) establishing its first facility outside the US in Glenrothes to manufacture germanium and silicon diodes. In 1965 Elliott Automation established a production facility in Glenrothes followed by a MOS research laboratory in 1967.