The high-tech region

In 1955, Business Week ran an article titled "New England Highway Upsets Old Way of Life" and referred to Route 128 as "the Magic Semicircle". By 1958, it needed to be widened from six to eight lanes, and business growth continued, often driven by technology out of Harvard University and MIT. In 1957, there were 99 companies employing 17,000 workers along 128; in 1965, 574; in 1973, 1,212. In the 1980s, the areas was often compared to California's Silicon valley, and the positive effects of this growth on the Massachusetts economy were dubbed the "Massachusetts Miracle".

Major companies with significant locations in the broader Route 128 area included:

Digital Equipment Corporation Data General BBN Technologies Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific, later merged as Thermo Fisher Scientific Analog Devices Computervision Microsoft GTE Honeywell Information Systems MITRE Polaroid Sun Microsystems BEA Systems Turbine, Inc. EMC Corporation Autodesk Raytheon Wang Laboratories Apollo Computer Prime Computer Cullinet