Sematech Selects Albany for $403M R&D Center "I honestly think this could be the most important economic development for upstate New York since the Erie Canal," says New York Gov. George Pataki.         Hyperbole is an occupational hazard in politics. But this really could be the start of something big:         International Sematech, a consortium of the world's biggest computer chipmakers, has picked Albany, N.Y., for a new US$403 million R&D center. The Austin, Texas-based company will site the 16,000-sq.-ft. (1,440-sq.-m.) Sematech North at the Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics at the University at Albany -- part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.         Sematech, formed in 1987, includes these U.S.-based companies: Agere Systems (formerly part of Lucent Technologies); Advanced Micro Devices; Hynix; Hewlett-Packard; IBM; Infineon Technologies; Intel; Motorola; Royal Philips Electronics; STMicroelectronics; Texas Instruments; and TSMC.         Sematech became more global in the late 1990s, adding five non-U.S. companies -- Hynix (South Korea), Infineon (Germany), Philips (Netherlands), STMicroelectronics (France) and Taiwan Semiconductor.         Sematech's numbers for direct job creation won't be enormous. The Albany center will initially hire 250 researchers, company officials say. Pay levels, though, will be sizeable, with estimated average annual salaries topping $80,000.         Far, far larger, though, is the spin-off tsunami that Sematech's upstate operation could touch off. Austin, where Sematech opened its first operation in 1988, is the prototype.         Sematech's transformation of Austin has been striking. Texas' capital city added some 100,000 technology-sector jobs in the decade after the company's arrival, and its population doubled. Economists and semiconductor-industry analysts attribute much of that hyper-growth to the presence of Sematech. The area around the company's Austin headquarters is now known as "Silicon Hills." Sematech CEO Cites 'Unprecedented Opportunity' Incentives, however, may not tell the entire story. Texas in 1988, for example, gave Sematech $62 million in incentives ­ less than a third of Massachusetts' $200 million offer.         A more intangible incentive was the presence of IBM, part of the Sematech consortium. Armonk, N.Y.-headquartered Big Blue considered leaving the Empire State in 1995. It changed its mind after Pataki personally lobbied the company to stay, offering generous subsidies. That rekindled partnership led to IBM's announcement in October 2000 of a $2.5 billion computer fab in East Fishkill, N.Y.         A similar combination of collaboration and capital drew Sematech to Albany, say company officials, who called the project's synergies "unprecedented."         "The International Sematech North collaboration provides an unprecedented opportunity to maximize the leverage of industry and state government investments," says ISMT President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Helms. "I am indeed overwhelmed ... at the support and engagement from the governor and SUNY Albany.         "Together, International Sematech and SUNY Albany can help the global semiconductor industry by tackling a key technical challenge -- the development of a new infrastructure to support next-generation lithography -- and funding that effort for success," Helms added.         Sematech's impact, however, will likely unfold slower in Albany than it did in Austin. The chip industry has been mired in a slump since the late 1990s. Sematech has reflected that slump as part of the Texas swoon. Its 600 employees in Austin are 400 below its peak employment. — Jack Lyne