[Vision2020] Boise's Dominance: Micron, HP

[Ted Moffett]

All:

One major reason Boise and Boise State have gained advantages over North
Idaho, Moscow and the U of I can be summed up in one word:  computers.

Micron is Idaho's largest private employer, employing around 10,000 in the
Boise area alone, with HP adding another 4000 jobs to the Boise area.

According to a 2005 economic analysis, Micron alone accounts for 3.7 percent
of Idaho's economic activity, employs 24,000 statewide (these are not low
paying service sector Wal-Mart/McDonalds jobs), and contributes one billion
(as in 1,000,000,000 $) dollars in personal income to Idaho.

Read data here:

http://download.micron.com/pdf/presentations/idahoimpact/micronimpact.pdf.

Many times around Moscow when I ask someone who is Idaho's largest private
employer I get an answer that ignores Idaho's high tech economy.

Take away just Micron and HP from Boise, and this subtraction of
economic power would shift some of the influence of Boise/Boise State back
to North Idaho and the U of I:

http://www.boisechamber.org/ec_dev/employers.htm


*EMPLOYER NAME*

*TOTAL JOBS *(01/01/05)



Micron Technology, Inc.



9,500

Mountain Home Air Force Base

5,250**

Saint Luke's Regional Medical Center

4,300

Boise School District

4,000*

Hewlett-Packard Company

4,000
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This impacts the influence of Boise State:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060505/NEWS0202/605050367/1029/NEWS02


*Micron gives $5 million for BSU doctoral program

*The Micron Technology Foundation said Thursday that it will donate $5
million to help Boise State University develop its new Ph.D. program in
electrical and computer engineering.

The doctoral program is a big step toward making BSU a metropolitan research
university with a national reputation, university President Bob Kustra said.
Science and technology officials agreed.

"We have lost our professors in the past to other states because they had
better grants for research," said Jason Crawforth, president and chief
executive officer of Boise-based TreeTop Technologies and a member of the
Governor's Science and Technology Advisory Council. "If you think about it,
money is what drives the best professors to do the best research, and if you
have better professors, you have better students."
Last year, BSU told the State Board of Education it needed about $5 million
over the next three years to start the program, and then the school could
keep it funded through research grants. Micron will spread $3 million of its
gift over the next four years and use the remaining $2 million to match
other donations that BSU receives for the program.
The engineering school plans to use the money to add two or three new
faculty positions, offer competitive stipends to its doctoral students and
renovate its laboratories, said Cheryl Schrader, dean of the College of
Engineering.

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And it looks like Micron is maintaining its economic power on the global
chip market, despite the slowdowns and layoffs that happened during the high
tech collapse after the Clinton years economic boom bubble burst:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060518/NEWS0202/605180320/1029/NEWS02


*Micron smiles for the camera
Chip maker ready to unveil new technology that will allow it to expand
presence in digital camera market*

Micron Technology will unveil a new imaging chip today that could help the
company expand into the digital camera market.

Micron, Idaho's largest private employer, already dominates the mobile phone
market. Its CMOS — complementary metal-oxide semiconductor — image sensors
are used in one-third of the camera phones on the market.

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Ted Moffett
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