Wash. The magazine cited the region's quality of life, access to higher education and family-friendliness as reasons tech companies are moving into the area. Centers bring regions into the limelight as knowledgeable folks come to foster new ideas, and companies cluster around the source of the technology to attract talent and even more new ideas. Pittsburgh landed on the Wall Street Journal's map of technology published in November 1999 because of Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. Seattle is known for software, e-commerce and biotech. San Francisco has its funky new media companies.
Silicon Valley is famous for semiconductors, Internet start-ups and networking equipment.
Austin, Texas, landed on the map with computers, software and semiconductors. Boston's Route 128 is famous for computer storage, Internet portals, Web development and software. Silicon Alley, in the shadow of the Flatiron Building in New York, boasts Internet advertising, content development, design and consulting firms. In D.C., telecommunications, Internet service providers and consulting firms choke the beltway. And among that celebrated collection of new-economy hothouses, Philadelphia will soon reside with its nanotechnology, biotech and optical technology.