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Friday, November 02, 2001

By Dan Fitzpatrick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse chief executive Dennis Yablonsky said yesterday that in the two years since the Greenhouse was unveiled in June 1999, companies involved in the project have created 661 local jobs.

About 55 percent of those jobs are from 12 companies that already had offices in the area before Greenhouse's formation, including Tollgrade Communications and Compunetix, and 45 percent are from six start-ups and four new semiconductor design centers.

Only two of the six start-ups can attribute their launch directly to Greenhouse research funds.

While the 661-job total through June 30 is less than half of former Gov. Tom Ridge's three-year goal of 1,500, it is "ahead of our schedule at this point," said Yablonsky, who was in Oakland yesterday to unveil a new design center for Greenhouse partner Oki Semiconductor of Sunnyvale, Calif.

The original plan, Yablonsky said, was for many of the jobs to be created in the Greenhouse's third year. Also, many of the 661 jobs cited yesterday were created at a time when the economy was slowing.

The Digital Greenhouse is a consortium of 25 companies, universities and nonprofits working to make the region a worldwide leader in advanced chip design. The goal is to make it easier for electronics firms that use computer chips to develop ideas, share technology and bring their products to market quickly.

Thus far, the Greenhouse has raised $10 million from the state and $8 million to $9 million from companies, foundations and the federal government. Greenhouse officials have used part of that money to fund 35 different research projects. Two of those projects have led to the creation of new companies -- Churchill-based Benchmark Photonics and Shaler-based Proxicast.

"It is fair to say had we not received Greenhouse grant money last year, we certainly wouldn't still be in business," said Proxicast executive Kevin Weaver.

This year, the Greenhouse also started programs at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State University that train electrical engineering and computer science graduates in so-called "system-on-a-chip" design -- a smaller, more efficient chip-making method considered to be the wave of the future in the semiconductor industry. By training these graduates and bankrolling research in the areas of digital video and digital networking, the Greenhouse hopes to attract companies that make set-top boxes, high-definition TVs and wireless communications products.

By summer 2003, the Greenhouse and some of its member companies will have a permanent home in a new Carnegie Mellon University building to be developed in Panther Hollow.

Creating 661 jobs in two years "is quite an accomplishment," said state Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Sam McCullough.