COLORADO SPRINGS ETERNAL.

• Author: LEWIS, PETE

COLORADO SPRINGS' HIGH-TECH INDUSTRIES ARE POLYMORPHOUSLY DIVERSE, AND GROWING FAST

Gary Cuddeback understands there's a lot more to high-tech than telecommunications. Economic development director for Colorado Springs, Cuddeback is the first to concede Denver the title of Colorado's information technology hub. He and his city are happy, thank you very much, with the rest.

"Denver has more telecommunications," said Cuddeback. "We've got software development, semiconductor manufacturing and electronic manufacturing." Cuddeback also could have included e-commerce, data storage, tech support and sports technology, to say nothing of defense and aerospace. Including the spin-off industries supporting its major players, Colorado Springs' high-tech economy is world-class, firmly entrenched and expanding.

"One of the big misconceptions about Colorado Springs is that our economy is not diverse," said Bob Balink, vice president with the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce. "We get labeled as space and defense or as chip manufacturing; but people fail to recognize just how diverse our high-tech community is."

Prime example: Intel Corp. earlier this year purchased the former Rockwell International Corp. chip plant in Colorado Springs. The plant will employ more than 1,000 people by 2001 and should be producing chips by this Thanksgiving, said Intel spokesman Bill McKenzie. The plant eventually will have 2,500 employees producing flash-memory chips. Intel expects to invest about $2.4 billion in new construction and equipment at the facility, making it the largest corporate investment in facilities and equipment in Colorado's history.

Compaq is another high-tech heavy-weight making a significant investment in the Springs. The $40 billion computer company has been in Colorado Springs since the late 1970s, but its presence has multiplied since 1998 when it purchased Digital Equipment. Compaq employs about 1,800 people in Colorado, including 350 in its Storage Products Division. It is the headquarters for its StorageWorks, which develops external storage devices, and SANworks, which develops enterprise software to manage Storage Area Networks. Compaq also recently opened a facility in Broomfield.

"We're growing very fast, and we opened a facility in Interlocken to attract workers from the Boulder area," said Gary Wright, director of enterprise software for Compaq.

In June, Compaq will open a SAN interoperability lab for testing its connectivity...