The Moses of Silicon Valley

DEC 01, 1997

How did the epicenter of the semiconductor industry come to be located in California, a continent away from New Jersey, where the transistor was invented and most of the fundamental semiconductor technology was developed?

DOI: 10.1063/1.881629

Michael Riordan

Lillian Hoddeson

Forty years ago the southern part of the San Francisco Bay area was predominantly an agricultural valley filled with apricot orchards. Today this region is the bustling high‐technology capital of the world—envied by governments around the globe for its creativity and productivity. How did this remarkable technological transformation occur? And why is Silicon Valley located southeast of San Francisco rather than in, say, northern New Jersey, the Boston area or near Dallas?

References

1. For discussion of Terman’s central role in the founding of Silicon Valley, see S. W. Leslie, The Cold War and American Electronics: The Military‐Industrial‐Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford, Columbia U.P., New York (1993), ch. 2.
See also S. W. Leslie, R. Kargon, Business Hist. Rev. 70, 1 (winter 1996).
2. A. E. Anderson, R. M. Ryder, “Development History of the Transistor in the Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric (1947–75),” unpublished manuscript, AT&T Archives (undated), p. 51.
3. W. Shockley, “Memorandums” (personal diary, 1955–56), Stanford University Archives, Shockley papers, accession listing 95–153, box 2B.
4. W. Shockley, “An Urgent Recommendation for the Silicon Program—Case 38139‐7,” Bell Laboratories internal memorandum, 21 March 1955, Stanford University Archives, Shockley papers, accn. 90–117, box 2.
5. W. Shockley, Proc. IRE 45 (3), 279 (1957).https://doi.org/PIREAE
6. A. Beckman, letter to W. Shockley, 3 September 1955, Stanford University Archives, Shockley papers, accn. 95–153, box 2B.
7. F. Terman, letter to W. Shockley, 20 September 1955, Stanford University Archives, Terman papers, box 48, folder 8.
8. H. Lowood, introduction to the Terman papers, Stanford University Archives. See also S. W. Leslie, reference 1.
9. I. Ross, telephone conversation with M. Riordan, 23 September 1996.
10. T. R. Reid, The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution, Simon & Schuster, New York (1984), p. 73.
11. C. J. Frosch, L. Derick, J. Electrochem. Soc. 104, 547 (September 1957).https://doi.org/JESOAN
12. W. J. Pietenpol, Bell Laboratories Record, June 1958, p. 202.
13. W. Shockley quoted by G. Moore, interview by L. Hoddeson and M. Riordan, 11 January 1996 (transcript of relevant part available from Hoddeson and Riordan).
14. W. Shockley, “Golden West Theme Book” (personal diary, 1956–57), Stanford University Archives, Shockley papers accn 95–153, box 2B, p. 58.
15. F. Seitz, interview by L. Hoddeson and M. Riordan, 26 September 1992 (transcript of relevant part available from Hoddeson and Riordan).

More about the Authors

Michael Riordan. Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford, California.

Lillian Hoddeson. University of Illinois, Urbana‐Champaign.