Advanced Technology District

Introduction

Silicon Valley,[1][2] also known as Silicon Valley,[3] is the name given to the southern area of the San Francisco Bay Area, in northern California, United States.[4] The region whose name comes from the Santa Clara Valley, includes the southern half of the San Francisco peninsula, spanning approximately from Redwood City to San José "San José (California)") and whose center would be located in Sunnyvale. However, with the rapid increase in the number of technology-related jobs in the San Francisco metropolitan area, the traditional borders of Silicon Valley have expanded northward to include San Mateo County and the city of San Francisco "San Francisco (California)."[5].

Originally the name was related to the large number of innovators and manufacturers of silicon chips manufactured there, but it definitely ended up referring to all the high-tech businesses established in the area; It is currently used as a metonym for the high-tech sector of the United States (a la Hollywood (California) for American cinema).

Despite the development of other high-tech economic centers in the United States and around the world, Silicon Valley continues to be the leading center for high-tech innovation and development, receiving one-third (1/3) of total venture capital investment in the United States, from companies such as JASD.[6].

There is talk of another great option, the growing attraction of Texas, and in particular of the city of Austin "Austin (Texas)"), as a new technological hub has led prominent companies such as Apple, Google and Tesla to establish themselves in the region due to commercial incentives and its profitability. This phenomenon has caused Texas to be considered by many as the "new California." The State has experienced significant economic growth since 2019, with exponential numbers, and this pattern appears to continue today. The more affordable cost of living compared to California has attracted a significant number of workers to the area. Additionally, key sectors such as software development, health-tech and fintech have emerged as the main drivers of technological growth in Texas, cementing its position as a strong alternative to Silicon Valley.[7].

Place names

The term Silicon Valley was coined by journalist Don C. Hoefler in 1971. Silicon refers to the high concentration of industries in the area, related to semiconductors and computers; refers to the Santa Clara Valley, although it could also be applied to the surrounding area, on both sides of the bay, into which many of these industries have expanded.

Advanced Technology District

Introduction

Place names

History

Contenido

La ubicación de las industrias de alta tecnología en el valle se debió, en gran medida, a William Shockley y Frederick Terman").

Terman, profesor de la Universidad de Stanford, consideró que una vasta zona sin utilizar de propiedad de la universidad sería perfecta para el desarrollo inmobiliario e intelectual y estableció un programa para incentivar a los estudiantes graduados a quedarse allí, proveyéndoles de capital de riesgo. Uno de los principales éxitos en la historia del programa fue que logró convencer a dos graduados: William Hewlett y David Packard, quienes conformarían la empresa Hewlett-Packard, la cual se convertiría en una de las primeras firmas tecnológicas que no estaban directamente relacionadas con la NASA o la Marina estadounidense.

En 1951 el programa se amplió nuevamente, creando el "Parque Industrial de Stanford" (Stanford Industrial Park") en inglés), que consiste en una serie de pequeños edificios industriales que eran alquilados a muy bajo costo a compañías técnicas. En 1954 se instituyó The Honors Cooperative Program, actualmente llamado coop, para permitirle a los empleados a tiempo completo de las compañías obtener títulos universitarios estudiando en un régimen de media jornada. Las primeras compañías firmaron acuerdos de cinco años en los cuales establecían que pagarían el doble de la matrícula por cada estudiante para cubrir los gastos. Hacia mediados de los 50 la estructura de lo que posteriormente permitiría la creación del "valle" se encontraba en una etapa ascendente gracias a los esfuerzos de Terman.

The silicon transistor and the birth of Silicon Valley

It was in this atmosphere that a former Californian decided to move there. William Shockley, who had left Bell Labs in 1953 over a disagreement over the way the transistor had been presented to the public, and due to patent interests, his name was relegated to the background in favor of co-inventors John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain. After divorcing his wife, he returned to the California Institute of Technology where he graduated in Science, but moved to Mountain View (California) to create the company Shockley Semiconductor (as part of Beckman Instruments) and live closer to his father.

Unlike other researchers who used germanium as a semiconductor material, Shockley believed that silicon was a better material for making transistors. Shockley set out to improve the transistor with a three-element design (today known as the Shockley diode) that would achieve commercial success, but whose design was considerably more difficult to construct than the conventional design. As the project went through various difficulties, Shockley became increasingly paranoid; He required employees to take a lie detector test, announced their salaries publicly, alienating people in general, and in 1957, Shockley decided to end work on the silicon transistor, all factors that helped cause eight of the brightest engineers he had hired to leave in 1957 to form the Fairchild Semiconductor company. Shockley called them the "eight traitors." Two of the employees of the original Fairchild Semiconductor group, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, would in turn later found Intel.[9][10].

During the following years this event would be repeated several times; As engineers lost control of the companies they created as they fell into the hands of outside directives, they abandoned them to form their own companies. AMD, Signetics, National Semiconductor, and Intel emerged as offspring of Fairchild or, in other cases, offspring of offspring.

In the early 1970s, the entire area was filled with semiconductor companies that supplied computer companies and these two, in turn, supplied programming and service companies. Industrial space was plentiful and accommodation still cheap. Growth was fueled by the emergence of the Sand Hill Road venture capital industry founded by Kleiner Perkins in 1972; The availability of this capital exploded after the successful $1.3 billion takeover bid of Apple Computer in December 1980. It is one of the richest companies in the world.

In Europe, the concept equivalent to Silicon Valley is that of technology parks, which are spaces specifically created for technological companies. In Europe there are many of them, especially in the vicinity of larger cities.[11].

History

Contenido

La ubicación de las industrias de alta tecnología en el valle se debió, en gran medida, a William Shockley y Frederick Terman").

Navegación

Advanced Technology District

Introduction

Place names

Advanced Technology District

Introduction

Place names

History

Contenido

The silicon transistor and the birth of Silicon Valley

Renowned companies

Universities

Cities

References

History

Contenido

The silicon transistor and the birth of Silicon Valley

Renowned companies

Universities

Cities

References