High-tech enclaves around the world are no mere Silicon Valley wannabes. They are chips off the old block.

                                                  By Chris Allbritton
                                                ASSOCIATED PRESS

                 Silicon Valley: The phrase conjures a pop-culture wonderland of microchips and moxie. Its inhabitants
                 once said it meant the end of geography.

                 Workers would collaborate across oceans and continents in cyberspace. Business would leap borders
                 without tax or tariff. With such technology, who cared which "X" marked which spot on some map?

                 Well . . . not quite. Instead of destroying geography, cyberspace has redrawn the map.

                 The globe is now dotted with high-tech hot spots where geography is very real, because working and
                 living cheek-to-jowl with similarly plugged-in folks creates a critical mass. Proximity helps produce
                 ideas, which produces products, which produces wealth.

                 After all, Silicon Valley is a real place, too. Why else is Sun Microsystems a stone's throw from Oracle
                 and Apple Computer in this verdant fold in the California earth? Why did Microsoft Corp., a perennial
                 Valley outsider, recently open a major office there?

                 The Seattle area, where Microsoft has its headquarters, is itself an example. Software and
                 Internet-related companies in the area -- among them Amazon.com and Nintendo of America -- generate
                 $20 billion a year in sales.

                 Unlike Seattle's high-tech cluster, which does not have a nickname, many other regions have grafted
                 "Silicon" onto their local area's identifying feature.

                 But despite their imitation of all things Californian, these are no mere pretenders. In fact, according to a
                 recent survey by the American Electronics Association, these new clusters are creating most of the
                 high-tech jobs. Since 1990, Austin, Texas' "Silicon Hills" has created three times more high-tech jobs
                 than Silicon Valley. Utah and Washington state also out-hired the Valley.

                 Here is a tour of some of the lesser-known high-tech regions on the Silicon Planet.

                 United States
 

                 Route 128, Boston. The traffic is the first clue. Four lanes each direction, jammed bumper to bumper for
                 two hours every morning and every night. Route 128, the high-tech beltway surrounding Boston, is home
                 to Lotus, Lycos, Data General and about 3,600 other up-and-coming and stalwart computer and
                 electronics companies.

                 The region has benefited from Boston's storied universities, particularly the Massachusetts Institute of
                 Technology. About one in 10 jobs in Massachusetts -- 308,900 total -- is high-tech related.

                 -- Sharon L. Lynch, AP, Boston
                 Silicon Alley, N.Y. Content is king in Silicon Alley, centered on Manhattan's Flatiron Building but
                 stretching from New Jersey to Connecticut.

                 The Alley is home to many of the world's major media companies -- Time Warner, the New York
                 Times, Viacom -- as well as possibly the highest concentration of the Internet's new power players:
                 publishers and advertising agencies. Some 4,800 communications-related companies in all are here,
                 comprising an economy worth $2.7 billion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

                 Razorfish and Agency.com, two of the largest online advertising and Web design firms, are based here,
                 along with DoubleClick, a major online ad company.

                 New York lacks programming talent, and aging telecommunications infrastructure, heavy taxes, and high
                 rents make it hard to run a business. But "New York" remains a magic phrase, lending fledgling
                 companies credibility.

                 The community's virtual town square is Echo, the online bulletin board that has been called "the
                 Algonquin roundtable of the 1990s." Echo founder Stacy Horn calls it "the crankiest group in
                 cyberspace."

                 Chris Allbritton, AP, New York

                 Silicon Valley Forge, Philadel phia. Although the Route 202 Corridor has been the region's engine for
                 growth, it has not captured national attention for the simple reason that most companies here don't make
                 products that sell in the mass market.

                 Instead, Route 202 firms focus on niche areas, such as software that runs a hospital, a college, or a
                 government agency.

                 Firms SCT Corp. and Shared Medical Systems, both in Malvern, make processing software for large
                 institutions. Lockheed Martin and Unisys, companies with offices near Route 202, employ thousands in
                 computer and software jobs.

                 SAP America, one of the world's largest software firms, is locating its new corporate headquarters in
                 Newtown Square, a short drive from Route 202.

                 Venture funds, interactive advertising agencies, and Internet firms also have sprouted up along Route
                 202.

                 RFA, an economic consulting firm in West Chester, estimates that about 97,000 workers in the
                 Philadelphia region are employed in high-tech jobs, about 4.4 percent of the workforce.

                 Pennsylvania ranks eighth in the U.S. in high-tech employment with 151,400 workers, according to the
                 American Electronics Association. New Jersey ranks seventh with 168,000 high-tech jobs.
                 -- Bob Fernandez, The Inquirer

                 Silicon Hills, Austin, Texas. The personal computer company founded in 1984 by college dropout
                 Michael Dell became so successful it coined a term in this college town, Dellionaires:
                 employee-stockholders worth $1 million or more.

                 Following Dell's example are young entrepreneurs such as Joe Liemandt, who founded software maker
                 Trilogy Development Group and, at 28, became the youngest member of the Forbes 400 list of
                 wealthiest people.

                 Texas' capital city includes major facilities for IBM, Advanced Micro Devices, Motorola, and other
                 programming, software and gaming companies.

                 All this was sparked by Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp.'s 1983 decision to locate
                 here. Sematech, the semiconductor industry's research consortium, followed.

                 Today, about 1,750 companies employ some 110,000 people in high-tech jobs in Austin, Engle said.
                 That's about one-fifth of the city's total employment, according to state figures.

                 -- Michael Holmes, AP, Austin

                 Asia
 
 

                 Silicon China, Zhongguancun. Take a population of intellectuals clustered near top universities. Add
                 local and foreign entrepreneurs looking to profit from the thirst for information.

                 What you get is Zhongguancun. The 3-mile-long street in Beijing's suburbs that just a decade ago was
                 lined by drab state-owned shops and dumpling joints is now full of computer outlets, Internet cafes, and
                 high-tech start-ups.

                 The area's proximity to China's best universities led to its transformation into the city's main high-tech
                 zone. Software and computer-game businesses started by professors and graduates have migrated from
                 campus into storefronts nearby.

                 Adding to a "computer fair" feeling are farmers supplementing their incomes by peddling pirated CDs
                 and software on the sidewalks.

                 Among the most prominent high-tech firms based in the area are Founder, a Beijing University start-up
                 that produces the most popular Chinese electronic publishing software; Legend, China's No. 1 domestic
                 computer maker, and Stone, a major electronics firm.

                 Some 102,000 people work in Zhongguancun, whose high-tech businesses have revenues of more than
                 $4.1 billion a year, officials say.

                 A "brain drain" of talent overseas has hampered China's quest for advanced technology, although some
                 of those who have succeeded abroad returned to Zhongguancun to finance ventures of their own.

                 -- Elaine Kurtenbach, AP, Beijing
                 Silicon Island, Taiwan. Some left high-paying jobs abroad to come to Taiwan's version of Silicon
                 Valley. Others drawn to the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park were native entrepreneurs who
                 formerly made toys or shoes or calculators.

                 The park's creators, using tax incentives to draw low-cost factories, transformed a rural town 90
                 minutes from Taipei. Some 260 start-up companies have blossomed since the park opened in 1980,
                 making Taiwan the largest manufacturer of monitors, keyboards, mouse devices and motherboards.
                 Taiwan also makes one-third of the world's notebook computers.

                 About 68,500 people work in Hsinchu Park, which contributes $13.9 billion to Taiwan's $284 billion
                 economy.

                 From the engineers' casual clothing to their Lexus and Acura cars, the park seems like a reconstructed
                 Silicon Valley. One company even has a beach volleyball court. Though Taiwanese traditionally defer
                 to their bosses during business meetings, conferences at the park are more lively and often in English,
                 said salesman James Liu of D-Link Corp.

                 The reason? Many of the employees and engineers once worked in the Valley.

                 -- Annie Huang, AP, Taipei
                 Kyushu, Japan. The Japanese island of Kyushu could be an island of prosperity in Japan's troubled
                 economic waters.

                 The southernmost island in the Japanese archipelago, Kyushu is home to 19 semiconductor plants and
                 about 350 supporting firms. Japan's NEC Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric Industrial Co. have factories
                 there, as does Texas Instruments. The area is the source of almost one-third of the microchips made in
                 Japan.

                 Why Kyushu? Because of the island's clear, clean water, which the companies need for silicon chip
                 production.

                 -- Todd Zaun, AP, Tokyo
 

                 Silicon Plateau, Bangalore, India. Fifteen years ago, Bangalore was a popular town for retired civil
                 servants drawn by its salubrious climate and laid-back lifestyle. Now, it's the high-powered software
                 capital of India, a city that can barely cope with its newfound wealth.

                 Since the 1980s, Bangalore's university has produced 30,000 new engineers a year, 7,000 of them
                 computer engineers. This pool of English-speaking specialists in hardware and software, willing to
                 work for bargain salaries by international standards, made Bangalore a magnet for multinational
                 companies.

                 After the Indian government lowered taxes on foreign chip and computer manufacturers, a host of
                 companies including Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, IBM and Novell arrived.

                 Today, the city has 250 software companies, many of them linked by satellite to home offices in the
                 United States. They employ 50,000 and contribute $1.2 billion of India's $4 billion in software exports.

                 Salaries are lavish by Indian standards. In a nation where per-capita income is $300 per year, yuppie
                 couples in high-tech jobs spend weekends at exclusive country clubs, and the hottest status toy is a home
                 theater system.

                 -- Hema Shukla, AP, New Delhi
                 "Intelligent Island," Singapore. Imagine Miss Internet beauty contests. Courtrooms with
                 video-conferencing for faraway witnesses. Computerized bus stops that monitor buses to tell impatient
                 commuters when to expect a ride.

                 In tiny Singapore, the fascination with high-tech can border on the surreal, and it's as much a government
                 effort as a public obsession. The plan is nothing less than to transform the Southeast Asian city-state of
                 3.1 million people into an "Intelligent Island."

                 This micro-managed country seems well on its way. According to 1997 statistics, 41 percent of all
                 households have computers.

                 In 1996, the government embarked on a plan to link every office, home and school to an ultra-fast
                 national multimedia network, Singapore One. Officials say 90 percent of the population can now access
                 it.

                 Today, about half of the world's hard-disk drives and most of Apple's latest iMac computers are
                 produced here, while a homegrown star, Creative Technology, produces about 60 percent of the world's
                 PC sound cards.

                 In 1997, about 36,000 people worked in Singapore's silicon economy, worth an estimated $5.36 billion.

                 -- Jonathan Drake, AP, Singapore
                 Silicon Corridor, Malaysia. In Malaysia, palm-oil plantations have become the Multimedia Super
                 Corridor. And despite an economic recession and lack of a technology-savvy labor force, it has grown
                 rapidly.

                 It's a pet project of Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, who envisions a $1.2 billion intelligent city
                 of high-tech companies, schools and a new paperless government seat all linked by fiber-optic lines.

                 The corridor starts at the southern edge of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, and connects a 30-by-9-mile zone
                 to a new multibillion-dollar international airport.

                 Promising 10-year tax incentives and unrestricted hiring of foreign staff, the government has lured 180
                 companies here. Among them: Sun Microsystems, Oracle Corp., and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone.
                 Corridor companies employ 14,600, and analysts project that in five years they will generate $25
                 billion, about one-fourth of the Malaysian economy.

                 Until recently, the question mark for the project was the regional currency crisis. To reassure investors,
                 the government earmarked $29 million for the project and sped up building of highways and railroads.

                 Now, the concern is politics, notably the arrest of Mohamad's former No. 2, Anwar Ibrahim.

                 -- Jocelyn Gecker, AP,
                 Kuala Lumpur

                 Europe/Middle East
 

                 Silicon Fen, Cambridge, England. Ever since the 17th century, Cambridge University has reckoned
                 itself the world's great center of science. It was here that Sir Isaac Newton established the principles of
                 physics. Other Cambridge scientists have split the atom, discovered vitamins, developed biochemistry,
                 deciphered DNA, and built the world's first digital computer.

                 Cambridge also has been one of the few universities in Britain to market its research by setting up
                 science parks to help entrepreneurs. The 1,200 tech-centered companies within a 30-mile radius of the
                 city employ 40,000 people and generate $6 billion per year.

                 Microsoft is getting in on the action. It announced in June that it would invest $80 million in a research
                 institute at Cambridge.
 

                 -- Robert Seely, AP, London
                 Sophia Antipolis, France. The French Riviera, long a playground for movie stars and millionaires,
                 became a haven for stressed-out techies, too, with the creation of Sophia Antipolis, a would-be Left
                 Bank for technology.

                 Built in the 1960s by decree, Sophia Antipolis, outside Cannes, lacked the edge that has driven
                 innovation in places like Silicon Valley, which it predated. Still, it has more than 18,000 high-tech
                 workers today, and 80 percent of its companies have eight employees or fewer, a hallmark of the tiny
                 but brilliant start-ups that fuel a science center.

                 Loaded with laid-back charm, Sophia Antipolis looks like a country club, bordered by the
                 Mediterranean and mountains, and dotted with golf courses and tennis courts.

                 "There's a certain spirit of working here that I doubt you have anywhere else," said Emmanuelle Donnet,
                 in charge of communications for the agency that manages Sophia Antipolis.

                 -- Angela Doland, AP, Paris
                 Oulu Technopolis, Finland. The initial push for promoting technology in this Baltic Sea port, 370 miles
                 north of Helsinki, came in the 1970s when Nokia began to develop radiotelephones for the Finnish army.
                 Technopolis followed in 1982, founded by 18 companies.

                 Now, the high-tech sector is estimated to be worth some $1 billion andemploys more than 13 percent of
                 the local workforce.

                 -- Matti Huuhtanen, AP, Helsinki
                 Silicon Bog, Ireland. A decade ago, the Republic of Ireland was an impoverished backwater. Today,
                 the country is called the Celtic Tiger and boasts the most vibrant European economy.

                 Ireland is the world's No. 2 software producer, trailing only the United States.

                 Major PC makers -- Intel, IBM, Apple, Dell, Compaq and Gateway -- have made Ireland their main
                 European base, and the country aggressively offers these companies a blend of tax breaks, government
                 aid, and investment in industry-linked university programs.

                 The silicon economy in the Irish Republic contributes $9 billion to the total Irish economy of $63
                 billion.

                 In all, computer-related industries employ more than 50,000 people and feature prominently in what a
                 few years ago were cow pastures outside Dublin, Limerick and Cork. The Irish Times job section is
                 filled with high-tech ads.

                 In Dublin, these high-salary jobs have helped fuel an unprecedented suburban housing boom. One new
                 red-brick development: Cyber Plains.

                 A primary inspiration for the boom was Chris Horn, in 1991 a computer sciences professor at Trinity
                 College Dublin who got government sponsorship to develop "middleware," software that makes
                 different programs compatible.

                 Today, Horn is one of Ireland's wealthiest men, and his Iona Technologies has forged a strategic
                 partnership with Microsoft. But Iona is only the best-known of nearly 600 indigenous software houses in
                 Ireland.

                 "In Ireland, from Day One, you think about exporting," Horn said. "Your domestic market's too small to
                 matter." Ireland has only 3.6 million people.

                 -- Shawn Pogatchnik, AP, Belfast

                 Silicon Wadi, Israel. The ancient walks of Israel have proven fertile ground for the cyber-revolution,
                 with soldiers turned software start-up kings using military know-how, government subsidies, and
                 ingenuity to make the desert bloom Silicon Valley green.

                 Israel's high-tech cluster, Silicon Wadi -- Arabic for the Middle East's dry riverbeds -- employs about 6
                 percent of the country's workforce. They take home twice the salary of their fellow workers, averaging
                 $30,000 a year.

                 Israel's stunning rise in the high-tech arena -- the industry is now worth $4 billion annually -- can be
                 credited to entrepreneurs who have taken advantage of technologies first developed in Israel's army.

                 Many worked in California during the microchip boom and then returned to the country in the late 1980s.

                 That, coupled with the budding peace process, encouraged international investment. About the same
                 time, immigrants from the former Soviet Union provided an abundant supply of cheap but highly skilled
                 labor. The government offered capital and support for start-up companies.

                 Israel is most prominent in the fields of systems security, telecommunications and imaging.

                 Explaining his country's cyber success, Oded Kafri, 54, who founded several start-up companies, cited a
                 parallel between Israel and the United States.

                 "I think the Israelis are very similar in many aspects to the Americans as a country of immigrants which
                 has talent from all over the world," Kafri said, "Israel has the spark that you see in America."

                 -- Dina Kraft, AP, Jerusalem