At Silicon Valley Firms, It’s Almost Business as Usual : Earthquake: Apple, Intel and other high-tech companies say their emergency plans--and good luck--will probably allow them to be back in full operation today.

It was clear from the start that it wasn’t going to be business as usual Wednesday at Borland International, a software publishing house nestled among the redwoods in the usually idyllic Santa Cruz Mountains just outside of Silicon Valley.

The rugged area, one of the hardest hit by Tuesday’s earthquake, had no electricity Wednesday, and Borland’s headquarters was littered with fallen ceiling tiles and soggy from the water that spilled from burst pipes.

“It’s all pretty bad in there,” said Richard Schwartz, Borland’s chief technology officer. “So we pulled out 10 phone lines up to a patio table in the parking lot and are running the company from here.”

But the situation at Borland--located less than 10 miles from the quake’s epicenter--was a marked departure from the rule Wednesday in the Silicon Valley, where the nation’s largest concentration of high-tech companies had clearly escaped the worst ravages of the quake.

It was a pleasant surprise for an industry where distances are measured in microns, where factories are so spotless some are officially known as “clean rooms” and where manufacturing lines are calibrated with the aid of laser beams.

“It’s almost business as usual,” said John Hamburger, a spokesman at Cypress Semiconductor, a San Jose semiconductor manufacturer. “We have dimmed some lights to save power, but that’s about it.”

To be sure, some companies closed partly or completely. But with only a few exceptions, such as Borland and others in the Santa Cruz area, the companies are expected to resume full operations this morning.

At Apple Computer, where dozens of windows broke and Macintosh computers fell off desks, 4,000 employees were told to stay home Wednesday so engineers could evaluate the safety of the more than 30 buildings the company occupies throughout the Silicon Valley. Other companies shut down to keep employees off the roads and give them a chance to clean up their homes and take care of their families.

Many companies credited the environmental controls required by governmental codes and advance earthquake planning for sparing them from the worst possible damage.

For example, at Intel Corp., a semiconductor manufacturer in San Jose, officials said their two chip-making plants reopened three hours after the earthquake hit, largely because of the company’s contingency planning, including the installation of mercury switches that automatically halt the flow of chemicals and gas through the factory in the event of a big earthquake.

In addition, chip makers are required to pump the hazardous chemicals needed in semiconductor manufacturing through pipes that are outfitted with sensors capable of detecting leaks.

The Bay Area’s genetic engineering companies also have many built-in safety precautions to help minimize quake damage in important laboratory and fermenting tank areas. Both Genentech in South San Francisco and Cetus in Emeryville reported minor glass breakage in laboratories but no apparent structural problems and no spills.

Times staff writer Donna K. H. Walters contributed to this story.