Like other districts in Silicon Valley, the district is also home to the headquarters of many high-tech corporations.

Agee was recognized in Time magazine for his strategy of bold, selective acquisitions aimed at transforming Bendix from a slow-growth manufacturing company in a mature industry, into a diversified high-tech corporation.

Will revitalized small towns attract high-tech corporations in search of livable locales for their employees?

These are puzzling days for Danbury, a rapidly growing city of high-tech corporations, condominiums and 70,000 residents tucked in the Berkshire foothills, 75 miles from Manhattan.

The first of those properties is under construction in Plano, Tex., near Dallas's high-tech corporations, which by continuously moving and retraining their employees, are expected to keep occupancy rates high.

Now, Melvin Sharp, who devised and executed Texas Instruments' patent program, hopes to spread his gospel to other high-tech corporations both in the United States and abroad.

During the past few years, Corning Inc. has transformed itself from an old-line manufacturing company to a high-tech corporation, and that has affected the social, economic and geographic fabric of the area.

After all, he supported the lease transaction at the state university's Albany campus for the nanotechnology center, which leases land to high-tech corporations.

Mr. Stephenson, a writer new to science fiction, is obviously well versed in the subgenre known as cyberpunk, which posits a computerized near-future dominated by amoral high-tech corporations.

It comprises an industrial estate that houses several high-tech corporations and factories.