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I've been to the unkindly nicknamed Silicon Roundabout tech hub in east London, and the beautifully titled Silicon Glen in Scotland.

“The Scots have always had this ability to reinvent themselves,” Staubermann says, noting the 'Silicon Glen' of the 1980s.

And Mr Priestley thinks that in the event of a Scottish independence referendum that leads to reunification with the EU, it's possible some start-ups could move north of the border, perhaps to rekindle "Silicon Glen" - a 1980s attempt to compete in the semiconductor industry.

She grew up in Greenock, Inverclyde, in an area known as Silicon Glen.

The world is full of Silicon Valley wannabes, invariably dubbed "Silicon Something", from Silicon Glen in Scotland to Silicon Savannah in East Africa to Silicon Gulf in the Philippines, but none of them approaches the real deal in northern California.