Silicon Valley 26976 225892449 2008-07-15T22:00:52Z Urbanrenewal 3542328 Quick-adding category "Venture capital" (using [[WP:HOTCAT|HotCat]]) :''For the valley nicknamed "Silicone Valley" see [[San_Fernando_Valley#Economy|San Fernando Valley]]; for the music album see [[Sillycone Valley]].'' [[Image:SJPan.jpg|thumb|right|275px|A view of [[downtown San Jose]], the self-proclaimed "Capital of Silicon Valley."]] '''Silicon Valley''' is the [[South Bay (San Francisco, California)|southern part]] of the [[San Francisco Bay Area]] in [[Northern California]], [[United States]]. The term originally referred to the region's large number of [[Integrated circuit|silicon chip]] innovators and manufacturers, but eventually came to refer to all the [[high-tech]] businesses in the area; it is now generally used as a [[metonym]] for the high-tech sector. Despite the development of other high-tech economic centers throughout the United States, Silicon Valley continues to be the leading high-tech hub because of its large number of engineers and [[venture capital]]ists. Geographically, Silicon Valley encompasses the northern part of [[Santa Clara Valley]] and adjacent communities. ==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 [[orchard]]s which gave the area its initial nickname, the Valley of Heart's Delight. ==History== {{quotation|Perhaps the strongest thread that runs through the Valley’s past and present is the drive to “play” 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.<ref name=Sturgeon>''Timothy J. Sturgeon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology'' | Timothy J. Sturgeon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology {{PDFlink|[http://ipc-lis.mit.edu/globalization/Silicon%20Valley.pdf SV Globalization]|90.0&nbsp;[[Kibibyte|KiB]]<!-- application/pdf, 92216 bytes -->}}</ref> }} [[Image:AlumRockViewSiliconValley w.jpg|thumb|750px|center|Looking west over northern [[San Jose, California|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. ===Roots in radio and military technology=== The [[San Francisco Bay Area]] had long been a major site of [[United States Navy|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, California|San Jose]]. Later that year, [[Stanford University]] graduate Cyril Elwell purchased the U.S. patents for [[Arc converter|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.<ref name=Sturgeon /> 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 Federal Airfield|Moffett Field]], and between 1933 and 1947, US Navy blimps were based here.<ref>[http://www.moffettfieldmuseum.org/history.html moffettfieldmuseum]</ref> 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, California|San Diego]] {{Fact|date=March 2007}}, [[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 Corporation|Lockheed]]. ===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 undoubtedly made Stanford Industrial Park a center of technology in the mid-1990s.<ref>[http://www.thocp.net/timeline/1984.htm 1984 printer]</ref><ref>[http://www.netvalley.com/svhistory.html SV History]</ref> ===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, Santa Clara County, California|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, [[Traitorous Eight|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 Corporation|Intel]].<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/weekinreview/02goodheart.html Goodheart] July 2, 2006</ref> ===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, Caufield & Byers|Kleiner Perkins]] in 1972; the availability of venture capital exploded after the successful $1.3 billion [[IPO]] of [[Apple Inc.|Apple Computer]] in December 1980. ===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 [[computer mouse|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 [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] GUI was largely a result of [[Steve Jobs]]' visit to PARC and the subsequent hiring of key personnel.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Microsoft's Windows GUI is based on Apple's work, more or less directly.<ref>[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 [http://inventors.about.com/mbiopage.htm Mary Bellis]</ref>{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Cisco's impetus stemmed from the need to route a variety of protocols over Stanford's campus Ethernet. ===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. <ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115352188346314087.html Reed Albergotti, "The Most Inventive Towns in America,"] ''Wall Street Journal'', 22-23 July 2006, P1.</ref> San Jose led the list with 3,867 utility patents filed in 2005, and number two was Sunnyvale, at 1,881 utility patents.<ref>''Ibid.''</ref> ==Economy== ===Notable companies=== {{see also|Category:Companies based in Silicon Valley}}<!-- DO NOT ADD to this list to include your pet company if it is NOT notable. The only companies that belong here are ones which are recognized by a great majority of people and/or have a great influence on the marketplace. Your consulting firm that employs two people doesn't meet the criteria. If you want to add a company here, discuss it on the Talk page FIRST. Any additions that are added without discussing first will be reverted WITHOUT DISCUSSION.--> Thousands of [[high-tech|high technology]] companies are headquartered in Silicon Valley; among those, the following are in the [[Fortune 1000]]: [[Image:Adobe HQ.jpg|thumb|right|Adobe Systems]] [[Image:Amdheadquarters.jpg|thumb|right|Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)]] [[Image:Applecomputerheadquarters.jpg|thumb|right|Apple Inc.]] [[Image:Ebayheadquarters.jpg|thumb|right|eBay]] [[Image:Googleplexsouthside.jpg|thumb|right|Google]] [[Image:Hpheadquartersentrance.jpg|thumb|right|Hewlett Packard]] [[Image:Intelheadquarters.jpg|thumb|right|Intel]] [[Image:Intuitheadquarters.jpg|thumb|right|Intuit]] [[Image:Nvidiaheadquarters.jpg|thumb|right|Nvidia]] [[Image:Oracle Corporation HQ.png|thumb|right|Oracle]] [[Image:Yahoo Headquarters.jpg|thumb|right|Yahoo!]] *[[Adobe Systems]] *[[Advanced Micro Devices]] (AMD) *[[Agilent Technologies]] *[[Apple Inc.]] *[[Applied Materials]] *[[Business Objects]] *[[Cisco Systems]] *[[eBay]] *[[Google]] *[[Hewlett-Packard]] *[[Intel Corporation|Intel]] *[[Intuit Inc.|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|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]] *[[Juniper Networks]] *[[Knight Ridder|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 Communications Corporation|Netscape]] (acquired by [[AOL]]) *[[NeXT|NeXT Computer, Inc.]] (acquired by [[Apple Computer|Apple]]) *[[Nintendo of America]] *[[Opera Software]] *[[OPPO]] *[[Palm, Inc.]] *[[PalmSource, Inc.]] (acquired by [[Access Co.|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 Corporation|Microsoft]]) *[[TiVo]] *[[VA Software]] ([[Slashdot]]) *[[WebEx]] (acquired by [[Cisco Systems]]) *[[VeriSign]] *[[Veritas Software]] (acquired by [[Symantec]]) *[[VMware]] (acquired by [[EMC Corporation|EMC]]) *[[Xilinx]] Silicon Valley is also home to the high-tech [[superstore]] retail chain [[Fry's Electronics]]. ==Universities== *[[Carnegie Mellon West|Carnegie Mellon University]] (West Coast Campus) *[[San José State University]] *[[Santa Clara University]] *[[Stanford University]] *[[University of California, Santa Cruz]] (NASA Ames UARC & UC Extension)<ref name="Silicon Valley Initiatives">{{cite web | last = UC Santa Cruz | first = | title = UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Initiatives | url=http://svi.ucsc.edu/ | accessdate = 2007-11-11 }}</ref> <ref name="University Affliated Research Center">{{cite web | last = NASA Ames | first = University of California, Santa Cruz | title = University Affiliated Research Center | url=http://uarc.ucsc.edu/ | accessdate = 2007-11-11 }}</ref> <ref name="UC Extension in Silicon Valley">{{cite web | last = University of California, Santa Cruz | first = Extension in Silicon Valley | title = UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley | url=http://www.ucsc-extension.edu | accessdate = 2007-11-11 }}</ref> ==Cities== A number of cities are located in Silicon Valley (in alphabetical order): *[[Campbell, California|Campbell]] *[[Cupertino, California|Cupertino]] *[[East Palo Alto, California|East Palo Alto]] (San Mateo County) *[[Fremont, California|Fremont]] *[[Los Altos, California|Los Altos]] *[[Los Altos Hills, California|Los Altos Hills]] *[[Los Gatos, California|Los Gatos]] *[[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]] (San Mateo County) *[[Milpitas, California|Milpitas]] *[[Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California|Mountain View]] *[[Newark, California|Newark]] *[[Palo Alto, California|Palo Alto]] *[[San Jose, California|San Jose]] *[[Santa Clara, California|Santa Clara]] *[[Saratoga, California|Saratoga]] *[[Sunnyvale, California|Sunnyvale]] Cities sometimes associated with the region: *[[Gilroy, California|Gilroy]] *[[Hayward, California|Hayward]] *[[Morgan Hill, California|Morgan Hill]] *[[Redwood City, California|Redwood City]] (home to Oracle and PDI/DreamWorks) *[[San Mateo, California|San Mateo]] *[[Scotts Valley, California|Scotts Valley]] *[[Santa Cruz, California|Santa Cruz]]<ref name="Silicon Valley Online">{{cite web | last = Sillicon Valley | first = | title = Sillicon Valley Online | url=http://www.siliconvalleyonline.org/cities.html#santacruz | accessdate = 2007-11-11 }}</ref> ==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]] ==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) *[http://www.thomasscoville.com/merc2.html 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 *[http://pup.princeton.edu/titles/7859.html 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 ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== {{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area}} *{{PDFlink|[http://ipc-lis.mit.edu/globalization/Silicon%20Valley.pdf How Silicon Valley Came to Be]|90.0&nbsp;[[Kibibyte|KiB]]<!-- application/pdf, 92216 bytes -->}} *[http://www.computerhistory.org/ Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA] *[http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/santaclara/intro.htm California's Historic Silicon Valley] *[http://www.netvalley.com/donhoefler.html Reference about Don Hoefler] *[http://www.siliconvalley.com/ Website focused on Silicon Valley news], backed by the ''[[San Jose Mercury News]]'' *{{PDFlink|[http://www.siliconvalley.com/multimedia/siliconvalley/archive/sv150_03.pdf ''Silicon Valley 150'' for beginning of 2004 as a PDF file]}} *[http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/anthropology/svcp/ The Silicon Valley Cultures Project] *[http://www.slac.stanford.edu Stanford Linear Accelerator center] *[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/12/27/BU52171.DTL Growth of a Silicon Empire] by Henry Norr published at the end of 1999 in the San Francisco Chronicle *[http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/englebart.html Douglas Engelbart] *[http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2004/february4/silicon-24.html Red tile roofs in Bangalore: Stanford's look copied in Silicon Valley and beyond] {{Silicon Valley}} {{San Jose and Silicon Valley attractions|nocat=1}} {{California}} {{coor title d|37.37|N|122.04|W}} [[Category:Economy of California]] [[Category:Geography of Santa Clara County, California]] [[Category:High-technology business districts]] [[Category:Subregions of the San Francisco Bay Area]] [[Category:Santa Clara County, California]] [[Category:Silicon Valley]] [[Category:Valleys of California]] [[Category:Venture capital]] [[be-x-old:Крэмніевая даліна]] [[bg:Силициева долина]] [[ca:Silicon Valley]] [[cs:Silicon Valley]] [[da:Silicon Valley]] [[de:Silicon Valley]] [[es:Silicon Valley]] [[eo:Silicon Valley]] [[fa:دره سیلیکون]] [[fr:Silicon Valley]] [[ko:실리콘 밸리]] [[hi:सिलिकॉन वैली]] [[id:Silicon Valley]] [[is:Silicon Valley]] [[it:Silicon Valley]] [[he:עמק הסיליקון]] [[mk:Силициумска долина]] [[nl:Silicon Valley]] [[ja:シリコンバレー]] [[no:Silicon Valley]] [[pl:Dolina Krzemowa]] [[pt:Vale do Silício]] [[ro:Silicon Valley]] [[ru:Кремниевая долина]] [[simple:Silicon Valley]] [[sk:Silicon Valley]] [[fi:Piilaakso]] [[sv:Silicon Valley]] [[ta:சிலிக்கான் பள்ளத்தாக்கு]] [[vi:Silicon Valley]] [[tr:Silikon Vadisi]] [[zh:硅谷]]