Silicon Valley Wiki

[edit] Origin of the term The term Silicon Valley was coined by Ralph Vaerst, a Northern California entrepreneur. Its first published use is credited to Don Hoefler, a friend of Vaerst's, who used the phrase as the title of a series of articles in the weekly trade newspaper Electronic News. The series, entitled "Silicon Valley USA," began in the paper's issue dated January 11, 1971. Valley refers to the Santa Clara Valley, located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, while Silicon refers to the high concentration of companies involved in the semiconductor and computer industries that were concentrated in the area. These firms slowly replaced the orchards which gave the area its initial nickname, the Valley of Heart's Delight.

[edit] History Perhaps the strongest thread that runs through the Valley's past and present is the drive to €œplay€ with novel technology, which, when bolstered by an advanced engineering degree and channeled by astute management, has done much to create the industrial powerhouse we see in the Valley today.

[1] Looking west over northern San Jose (downtown is at far left) and other parts of Silicon Valley Since the early twentieth century, Silicon Valley has been home to a vibrant, growing electronics industry. The industry began through experimentation and innovation in the fields of radio, television, and military electronics. Stanford University, its affiliates, and graduates have played a major role in the evolution of this area.

[edit] Roots in radio and military technology The San Francisco Bay Area had long been a major site of U.S. Navy research and technology. In 1909, Charles Herrold started the first radio station in the United States with regularly scheduled programming in San Jose. Later that year, Stanford University graduate Cyril Elwell purchased the U.S. patents for Poulsen arc radio transmission technology and founded the Federal Telegraph Corporation (FTC) in Palo Alto. Over the next decade, the FTC created the world's first global radio communication system, and signed a contract with the U.S. Navy in 1912.

[1] In 1933, Air Base Sunnyvale, California was commissioned by the United States Government for the use as a Naval Air Station (NAS) to house the airship USS Macon in Hangar One. The station was renamed NAS Moffett Field, and between 1933 and 1947, US Navy blimps were based here.

[2] A number of technology firms had set up shop in the area around Moffett to serve the Navy. When the Navy gave up its airship ambitions and moved most of its West Coast operations to San Diego

[citation needed], NACA (the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, forerunner of NASA) took over portions of Moffett for aeronautics research. Many of the original companies stayed, while new ones moved in. The immediate area was soon filled with aerospace firms such as Lockheed.

[edit] Stanford Industrial Park After World War II, universities were experiencing enormous demand due to returning students. To address the financial demands of Stanford's growth requirements, and to provide local employment opportunities for graduating students, Frederick Terman proposed the leasing of Stanford's lands for use as an office park, named the Stanford Industrial Park (later Stanford Research Park). Leases were limited to high technology companies. Its first tenant was Varian Associates, founded by Stanford alumni in the 1930s to build military radar components. However, Terman also found venture capital for civilian technology start-ups . One of the major success stories was Hewlett-Packard. Founded in Packard's garage by Stanford graduates William Hewlett and David Packard, Hewlett-Packard moved its offices into the Stanford Research Park slightly after 1953. In 1954, Stanford created the Honors Cooperative Program to allow full-time employees of the companies to pursue graduate degrees from the University on a part-time basis. The initial companies signed five-year agreements in which they would pay double the tuition for each student in order to cover the costs. Hewlett-Packard has become the largest personal computer manufacturer in the world, and transformed the home printing market when it released the first ink jet printer in 1984. In addition, the tenancy of Eastman Kodak and General Electric made Stanford Industrial Park a center of technology in the mid-1990s.

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[edit] Silicon transistor In 1953, William Shockley left Bell Labs in a disagreement over the handling of the invention of the transistor. After returning to California Institute of Technology for a short while, Shockley moved to Mountain View, California in 1956, and founded Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. Unlike many other researchers who used germanium as the semiconductor material, Shockley believed that silicon was the better material for making transistors. Shockley intended to replace the current transistor with a new three-element design (today known as the Shockley diode), but the design was considerably more difficult to build than the "simple" transistor. In 1957, Shockley decided to end research on the silicon transistor. As a result, eight engineers left the company to form Fairchild Semiconductor. Two of the original employees of Fairchild Semiconductor, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, would go on to found Intel.

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[edit] Venture capital firms By the early 1970s there were many semiconductor companies in the area, computer firms using their devices, and programming and service companies serving both. Industrial space was plentiful and housing was still inexpensive. The growth was fueled by the emergence of the venture capital industry on Sand Hill Road, beginning with Kleiner Perkins in 1972; the availability of venture capital exploded after the successful $1.3 billion IPO of Apple Computer in December 1980.

[edit] The rise of software Although semiconductors are still a major component of the area's economy, Silicon Valley has been most famous in recent years for innovations in software and Internet services. Silicon Valley has significantly influenced computer operating systems, software, and user interfaces. Using money from NASA and the U.S. Air Force, Doug Engelbart invented the mouse and hypertext-based collaboration tools in the mid-1960s, while at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International). When Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center declined in influence due to personal conflicts and the loss of government funding, Xerox hired some of Engelbart's best researchers. In turn, in the 1970s and 1980s, Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) played a pivotal role in object-oriented programming, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), Ethernet, PostScript, and laser printers. While Xerox marketed equipment using its technologies, for the most part its technologies flourished elsewhere. The diaspora of Xerox inventions led directly to 3Com and Adobe Systems, and indirectly to Cisco, Apple Computer and Microsoft. Apple's Macintosh GUI was largely a result of Steve Jobs' visit to PARC and the subsequent hiring of key personnel.

[citation needed] Microsoft's Windows GUI is based on Apple's work, more or less directly.

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[citation needed] Cisco's impetus stemmed from the need to route a variety of protocols over Stanford's campus Ethernet.

[edit] Internet bubble Silicon Valley is generally considered to have been the center of the dot-com bubble which started from the mid-1990s and collapsed after the NASDAQ stock market began to decline dramatically in April of 2000. During the bubble era, real estate prices reached unprecedented levels. For a brief time, Sand Hill Road was home to the most expensive commercial real estate in the world, and the booming economy resulted in severe traffic congestion. Even after the dot-com crash, Silicon Valley continues to maintain its status as one of the top research and development centers in the world. A 2006 Wall Street Journal story found that 13 of the 20 most inventive towns in America were in California, and 10 of those were in Silicon Valley.

[7] San Jose led the list with 3,867 utility patents filed in 2005, and number two was Sunnyvale, at 1,881 utility patents.

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[edit] Economy

[edit] Notable companies See also: Category:Companies based in Silicon Valley Thousands of high technology companies are headquartered in Silicon Valley; among those, the following are in the Fortune 1000: Adobe Systems Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Apple Inc. eBay Google Hewlett Packard Intel Intuit Nvidia Oracle Yahoo! Adobe Systems Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Agilent Technologies Apple Inc. Applied Materials Business Objects Cisco Systems eBay Google Hewlett-Packard Intel Intuit LSI Logic Maxtor National Semiconductor NetApp Nvidia SanDisk Solectron Symantec Sun Microsystems Yahoo! Additional notable companies headquartered (or with a significant presence) in Silicon Valley include (some defunct or subsumed): 3Com (headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts) Actel Actuate Corporation Adaptec Amdahl Aricent Asus Atari Atmel BEA Systems Cypress Semiconductor Computer Literacy Bookstore Facebook Foundry Networks Fujitsu (headquartered in Tokyo, Japan) Gaia Online Hitachi Global Storage Technologies IBM Almaden Research Center ImageShack Juniper Networks Knight-Ridder (acquired by The McClatchy Company) Logitech McAfee Memorex (acquired by Imation and moved to Cerritos, California) Microsoft (headquartered in Redmond, Washington) Netflix Netscape (acquired by AOL) NeXT Computer, Inc. (acquired by Apple) Nintendo of America Opera Software OPPO Palm, Inc. PalmSource, Inc. (acquired by ACCESS) PayPal (now part of eBay) Rambus Redback Networks SAP AG (headquartered in Walldorf, Germany) Siemens Silicon Graphics Silicon Image Sony SRI International Tesla Motors Tellme Networks (acquired by Microsoft) TiVo VA Software (Slashdot) WebEx (acquired by Cisco Systems) VeriSign Veritas Software (acquired by Symantec) VMware (acquired by EMC) Xilinx Silicon Valley is also home to the high-tech superstore retail chain Fry's Electronics.

[edit] Notable government facilities NASA Ames Research Center

[edit] Universities Carnegie Mellon University (West Coast Campus) San José State University Santa Clara University Stanford University Silicon Valley University, San Jose University of California, Santa Cruz (NASA Ames UARC & UC Extension)

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[edit] Cities A number of cities are located in Silicon Valley (in alphabetical order): Campbell Cupertino East Palo Alto (San Mateo County) Fremont (Alameda County) Los Altos Los Altos Hills Los Gatos Menlo Park (San Mateo County) Milpitas Mountain View Newark (Alameda County) Palo Alto San Jose Santa Clara Saratoga Sunnyvale Cities sometimes associated with the region: Gilroy Hayward Morgan Hill Redwood City (home to Oracle and PDI/DreamWorks) San Mateo Scotts Valley Santa Cruz

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[edit] See also List of attractions in Silicon Valley List of places with 'Silicon' names List of research parks around the world List of technology centers around the world Pirates of Silicon Valley €” Movie about the early development of Microsoft and Apple. Science park Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition Sustainable Silicon Valley (SSV) Silicon Forest

[edit] Further reading Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970 by Christophe Lécuyer, MIT Press (2006) Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy, Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1984) Behind the Silicon Curtain: The Seductions of Work in a Lonely Era, Dennis Hayes, London: Free Association Books (1989) Silicon Valley, Inc.: Ruminations on the Demise of a Unique Culture, The San Jose Mercury News (1997) Cultures@Silicon Valley, J. A. English-Lueck, Stanford: Stanford University Press (2002) The Silicon Valley of Dreams: Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High-Tech Global Economy, David Naguib Pellow and Lisa Sun-Hee Park, New York University Press (2003) What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry, John Markoff, Viking (2005) Silicon Follies: A Dot. Comedy, Thomas Scoville, Pocket Books (2000) The Silicon Boys: And Their Valleys Of Dreams, David A. Kaplan, Harper Perinneal (April 2000), ISBN 0-688-17906-1 Cities of knowledge: Cold War science and the search for the next Silicon Valley, Margaret Pugh O'Mara, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, (2005) Accidental Empires: How the boys of Silicon Valley make their millions, battle foreign competition, and still can't get a date, Robert X. Cringely, Addison-Wesley Publishing, (1992), ISBN 0-201-57032-7 "Start-Up : what we may still learn from Silicon Valley", Hervé Lebret, CreateSpace, 2007, ISBN 1-434-82006-8

[edit] References ^ a b Timothy J. Sturgeon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Timothy J. Sturgeon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology SV GlobalizationPDF (90.0 KiB) ^ moffettfieldmuseum ^ 1984 printer ^ SV History ^ Goodheart July 2, 2006 ^

[http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa043099.htm Inventors of the Modern Computer: The History of the Graphical User Interface or GUI - The Apple Lisa] by Mary Bellis ^ Reed Albergotti, "The Most Inventive Towns in America," Wall Street Journal, 22-23 July 2006, P1. ^ Ibid. ^ UC Santa Cruz. "UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Initiatives". Retrieved on 2007-11-11. ^ NASA Ames, University of California, Santa Cruz. "University Affiliated Research Center". Retrieved on 2007-11-11. ^ University of California, Santa Cruz, Extension in Silicon Valley. "UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley". Retrieved on 2007-11-11. ^ Sillicon Valley. "Sillicon Valley Online". Retrieved on 2007-11-11.

[edit] External links San Francisco Bay Area portal How Silicon Valley Came to BePDF (90.0 KiB) California's Historic Silicon Valley Reference about Don Hoefler Website focused on Silicon Valley news, backed by the San Jose Mercury News Silicon Valley 150 for beginning of 2004 as a PDF filePDF The Silicon Valley Cultures Project Stanford Linear Accelerator center Growth of a Silicon Empire by Henry Norr published at the end of 1999 in the San Francisco Chronicle Douglas Engelbart Red tile roofs in Bangalore: Stanford's look copied in Silicon Valley and beyond v €¢ d €¢ e Silicon Valley in California Cities Campbell €¢ Cupertino €¢ East Palo Alto €¢ Fremont €¢ Los Altos €¢ Los Altos Hills €¢ Los Gatos €¢ Menlo Park €¢ Milpitas €¢ Mountain View €¢ Newark €¢ Palo Alto €¢ San Jose €¢ Santa Clara €¢ Saratoga €¢ Sunnyvale €¢ Redwood City €¢ San Mateo Colleges and Universities Cogswell Polytechnical College €¢ Carnegie Mellon University - West Coast Campus €¢ De Anza College €¢ Evergreen Valley College €¢ Foothill College €¢ Menlo College €¢ Mission College €¢ National Hispanic University €¢ Northwestern Polytechnic University €¢ San Jose City College €¢ San José State University €¢ Santa Clara University €¢ Stanford University Companies (including subsidiaries and defuncts based in or around the area Adobe Systems €¢ AMD €¢ Agilent Technologies €¢ Apple Inc. €¢ Applied Materials €¢ Business Objects €¢ Cisco Systems €¢ eBay €¢ Electronic Arts €¢ Google €¢ Hewlett-Packard €¢ Intel €¢ Intuit €¢ LSI Logic €¢ Maxtor €¢ National Semiconductor €¢ Network Appliance €¢ Nvidia €¢ Oracle Corporation €¢ SanDisk €¢ Solectron €¢ Symantec €¢ Sun Microsystems €¢ Yahoo! €¢ 3Com €¢ Actuate €¢ Adaptec €¢ Amdahl €¢ Aricent €¢ Asus €¢ Atari €¢ Atmel €¢ BEA Systems €¢ Cypress Semiconductor €¢ Computer Literacy Bookstore €¢ Foundry Networks €¢ Fujitsu €¢ Gaia Online €¢ Hitachi Global Storage Technologies €¢ Juniper Networks €¢ Knight-Ridder €¢ Logitech €¢ McAfee €¢ Memorex €¢ Microsoft €¢ Netscape €¢ NeXT €¢ Nintendo of America €¢ Opera Software €¢ OPPO Digital €¢ Palm, Inc. €¢ PalmSource €¢ PayPal €¢ Rambus €¢ Redback Networks €¢ SAP AG €¢ Silicon Graphics €¢ Silicon Image €¢ Sony €¢ SRI International €¢ Taligent €¢ Tesla Motors €¢ Tellme Networks €¢ TiVo €¢ VA Software €¢ WebEx €¢ VeriSign €¢ Veritas Software €¢ VMware €¢ Xilinx €¢ Fry's Electronics v €¢ d €¢ e San Jose and Silicon Valley attractions Arboreta/Gardens Arizona Cactus Garden · Chinese Cultural Garden · Hakone Gardens · Japanese Friendship Garden · Overfelt Gardens · SJ Municipal Rose Garden · Stanford Arboretum · Villa Montalvo Arboretum Cultural American Musical Theatre of SJ · Ballet San Jose · Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph · De Saisset Museum · MLK Library · Gurdwara Sahib · Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies · Mexican Heritage Plaza · Opera San Jose · Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum · SJ City Hall · SJ Flea Market · SJ Museum of Art · SJ Rep Theatre · Viet Museum · Villa Montalvo · Vivace Youth Chorus Event venues Buck Shaw Stadium · HP Pavilion at San Jose · SC Convention Center · SJ Civic Auditorium · SJ Convention Center · SJ Municipal Stadium · Shoreline Amphitheatre · Spartan Stadium Events BayCon · Cinequest Film Festival · FanimeCon · FurCon · Gilroy Garlic Festival · LiveStrong Challenge · SJ Holiday Parade · SJ Jazz Festival · Stanford Jazz Festival Historical Circle of Palms · Hangar One · History Park at Kelley Park · Packard's garage · Peralta Adobe · Portuguese Historical Museum · Rengstorff House · SJ Museum of Quilts &Textiles  · Winchester Mystery House Parks/Trails Almaden Quicksilver County Park · Alum Rock Park · Bay Area Ridge Trail · Castle Rock State Park · Ed Levin Park · Grant Ranch Park · Guadalupe River Trail · Henry W. Coe State Park · Kelley Park · Lake Cunningham · Los Alamitos Creek Trail · Los Gatos Creek Trail · Plaza de César Chávez · Rosicrucian Park · Sanborn Park · SF Bay Trail · Shoreline Park · Stevens Creek Trail · Vasona Park Science/Tech/Education Children's Discovery Museum · Computer History Museum · Intel Museum · Laser Quest · Lick Observatory · NASA Ames Research Center · SJSU · SCU · Stanford · The Tech Museum of Innovation Shopping Cupertino Square · Eastridge · Great Mall · Pruneyard · San Antonio · Santana Row · Stanford · Oakridge · Valley Fair · Westgate Theme parks Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad · Gilroy Gardens · Great America · Happy Hollow Park &Zoo  · Raging Waters Vineyards/Wineries Byington Vineyard · J Lohr Vineyards and Wines · Mountain Winery · Picchetti Brothers Winery · Savannah-Chanelle Vineyards v €¢ d €¢ e   State of California Sacramento (capital) Topics Climate · Culture · Districts · Economy · Elections · Geography · Government · History · Politics · Californians · Visitor Attractions Regions Antelope Valley · Big Sur · Cascade Range · Central Coast · Central Valley · Channel Islands · Coachella Valley · Conejo Valley · Cucamonga Valley · Death Valley · East Bay (SF) · Eastern California · Emerald Triangle · Gold Country · Great Basin · Greater Los Angeles · Inland Empire · Lake Tahoe · Los Angeles Basin · Mojave · North Bay (SF) · North Coast · Northern California · Owens Valley · Oxnard Plain · San Francisco Peninsula · Pomona Valley · Redwood Empire · Russian River · Sacramento Valley · San Bernardino Valley · San Fernando Valley · San Francisco Bay Area · San Joaquin Valley · Santa Clara Valley · Santa Clarita Valley · Shasta Cascade · Sierra Nevada · Silicon Valley · South Bay (SF) · Southern California · Tri€‘Valley · Wine Country · Yosemite Metro areas Bakersfield · Chico · El Centro · Fresno · Hanford€“Corcoran · Los Angeles€“Long Beach€“Glendale · Madera · Modesto · Merced · Napa · Oakland€“Fremont€“Hayward · Oxnard€“Thousand Oaks€“Ventura · Redding · Riverside€“San Bernardino€“Ontario · Sacramento€“Arden-Arcade€“Roseville · Salinas · San Diego€“Carlsbad€“San Marcos · San Francisco€“San Mateo€“Redwood City · San Jose€“Sunnyvale€“Santa Clara · San Luis Obispo€“Paso Robles · Santa Ana€“Anaheim€“Irvine · Santa Barbara€“Santa Maria€“Goleta · Santa Cruz€“Watsonville · Santa Rosa€“Petaluma · Stockton · Vallejo€“Fairfield · Visalia€“Porterville · Yuba City Micro areas Bishop · Clearlake · Crescent City · Eureka€“Arcata€“Fortuna · Phoenix Lake-Cedar Ridge · Red Bluff · Susanville · Truckee€“Grass Valley · Ukiah Counties Alameda · Alpine · Amador · Butte · Calaveras · Colusa · Contra Costa · Del Norte · El Dorado · Fresno · Glenn · Humboldt · Imperial · Inyo · Kern · Kings · Lake · Lassen · Los Angeles · Madera · Marin · Mariposa · Mendocino · Merced · Modoc · Mono · Monterey · Napa · Nevada · Orange · Placer · Plumas · Riverside · Sacramento · San Benito · San Bernardino · San Diego · San Francisco · San Joaquin · San Luis Obispo · San Mateo · Santa Barbara · Santa Clara · Santa Cruz · Shasta · Sierra · Siskiyou · Solano · Sonoma · Stanislaus · Sutter · Tehama · Trinity · Tulare · Tuolumne · Ventura · Yolo · Yuba Coordinates: 37.37° N 122.04° W Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley" Categories: Silicon Valley | Economy of the San Francisco Bay Area | Geography of Santa Clara County, California | High-technology business districts | Subregions of the San Francisco Bay Area | Santa Clara County, California | Valleys of California | Venture capitalHidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since July 2007