Development of Silicon Valley - Case Study Example

SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES Student’s Name Course Tutor Date Development of Silicon Valley Introduction Silicon Valley refers to an industrial region located in California, US on the southern shores of San Francisco Bay. Silicon Valley encompasses northwestern Santa Clara County, San Jose, and the southern bay localities of San Mateo and Alameda counties. The name, Silicon Valley is derived from the fact that the area has a high concentration of computer and electronics firms that have pitched tent there since the beginning of the twentieth century. As a matter of fact, silicon is one of the main materials used in the manufacture of semiconductors that forms major part of computer circuits. The main economic activity in the Silicon Valley is computer and electronic equipment manufacturing although it has diversified to areas such as research and development. Development of the Silicon Valley According to Lécuyer (2006, pp 56-71), in the nineteenth century the area now commonly referred to as Silicon Valley was mainly a place better known for agricultural activities as it had a lot of orchards for fruits. It should be well understood that Silicon Valley is not a geographic location for the name is only synonymous with the fast rise of the electronics and computer industry as well as the introduction of the Internet and digital economy. Due to that, Silicon Valley in its entirety is also an ideological concept, hence an idea regarding the regions economic rise and a myth about America’s dominance in digital world. As a fact, many other nations have attempted to create model cities resembling Silicon Valley, and most of them have not had any significant levels of success for they have not been successful in creating elements that were vital to the success of the American Silicon Valley. The early development of the Silicon Valley can be attributed to non other than Frederick E. Terman, an electrical engineer and administrator. In 1924, while he was a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he noticed how the engineering faculty at Cambridge was very active in pursuing research and at the same time making useful contacts with industry through placement of students in relevant firms and consulting. Up on his return home in 1925 to Palo Alto Terman joined the engineering faculty at Stanford, a university where he had initially graduated with a bachelor’s degree. He realised that the electrical department of the university was lacking quite a number of essential things. Compared to MIT, the faculty there was very efficient in so many fields, thus power engineering, electronics, communications and computing hence giving MIT an edge over the rest. The sole focus at Stanford was electric power engineering. A new semiconductor laboratory was established by William Shockley in 1956 and within a period of a year, sverela dissatisfied engineers resigned to establish Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. The break-away engineers went ahead to invent integrated circuit. This was marked many of the inventions that changed landscape of American semiconductor. Statistics show that out of the 31 semiconductor manufacturers that have been established in the US during the 60s, just less than five companies are found out of the Valley. A remarkable change occurred in the market of semiconductor in the 60s and 70s. Consumption of semiconductors skyrocketed and owing to the lucrative nature of the business, American private financial providers outpace the government loan scheme for start-up firms. In the meantime, business people were on the rush to establish companies to adequately position themselves better to supply the manufacturers of semiconductors with materials. During those early years, it was easy to establish a company in the Silicon Valley find suitable location, capital and within a very short period of time roll out the business. The Silicon Valley business landscape witnessed a lot of transformations in the 80s and 90s as the American economy was shifting from use of semiconductors to manufacturing of personal computer and consequently to computer software as well as Internet related business. The minimal economic growth experienced in the period of 1986 to 92 was so serious that prompted leading electronic manufacturers in Silicon Valley to call for state protection against foreign firms to avoid competition. However, graduates from Stanford University did not relent on their desire to establish companies as about 100 of them were being established every year. Such companies included Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. established in 1982 and 1994 respectively. Committed entrepreneurs were able to return back to Silicon Valley as venture entrepreneurs thus putting back their wealth and expertise. This prompted a meteoric intellectual density growth of the Valley as well as steady flow of skills and employees. Despite the fast growth in the Valley, personal contact was still central to the manner of carrying out transactions in the Valley. In fact, personal contacts were as significant in the modern era of Internet as they were during the period of American government involvement in funding the Valley’s firm for its military research. A venture capitalist would in a way read through many business proposals, but what counted were the personality and the individual presentation of the entrepreneur that counted in release of funds. A poor work presentation would not attract any funding hence one of the greatest hurdles for start-up companies in the Silicon Valley during the 1990s. Although Internet has made global communications easier, the technologies responsible for the transformation were basically products of the culture of personal interactions Bubbling growth of the Silicon Valley The invention of the integrated circuit brought with it a lot of blessings to the Silicon Valley. For example, in 1959, about 18,000 jobs were created in the region and at the end of 1970 there were about 120,000 such jobs. The figure jumped up as witnessed in 1990 when about 268,000 job positions were created, which was a 23 percent increase and consequently accounted for over 40 percent of the export trade of California. In order to bridge the growing gap of high-technology individuals especially engineers, the American government relaxed its immigration regulations for immigrants having skills needed thus the region experienced a large influx of skilled labour from emerging economies such as China and India. The US population census taken from 1975 to 1990 showed that the population of foreigners doubled to about 350,000. It has also been shown that the population of the Valley has grown to over two million by the start of the 21st. Computers, electronic products as well as computer software contributed enormously to the wealth of the region. Notable personalities in the development of computing The early pioneers such as Terman believed so much on technological inventions and innovations at the university research stations and highly encouraged their students to take up research in the industry. Funding in the earlier times was mostly channeled to the universities. The later personalities in the field of computing depended so much on collaborations and making contacts so as to come up with new ideas. Most of their inventions were not in universities. As detailed below the latter inventors included but not limited to: Robert Norton Noyce He went by the nickname given to him by his fellow workers as the Mayor of Silicon Valley. He was one of the co-founders of a company specialised in making semiconductors known as Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957. He also co-founded Intel Corporation in 1968. Noyce is also credited together with Jack Kilby for inventing the microchip commonly known as integrated circuit that powers the revolution of personal computer hence giving Silicon Valley the brand name. Jack Kilby He was an outstanding American physicist who together with Robert Noyce worked on the possibility of the first integrated circuit while they were still working in the company called Texas Instruments in 1958. He received the Nobel Prize in 2000 for his work in physics that led to the invention of thermal printer as well as calculator. John Bardeen He was an American electrical engineer and physicist who went down in history as the only person to have won the coveted honour of Nobel Prize in physics twice. The first one was due to his work with a colleague, Walter Brattain and William Shockley in 1956 that led to inventing the transistor. He did it again in 1972 with working comprising of John Robert Schrieffer and Leon Neil Cooper for superb findings concerning the theory of conventional superconductivity referred to as BCS theory. The invention of transistor brought a lot of changes in the electronics industry hence necessitating the occurrence of Information Age as well as the development of many electronic devices such as computers. The development of superconductivity by Bareen is widely used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Ted Hoff, Jr. Ted is one of the people credited with microprocessor invention. He joined Intel Company in 1967 and has been credited for coming up with the concept of using a universal processor as opposed to many circuits. His ideas and intelligence jump-started the microprocessor development that was eminent in the 1970s. However, Federico Faggin is independently credited with the development of the silicon-gate design and also worked on the actual chip design that came in handy in the development of the first microprocessor. Hoff was elevated to the rank of Intel Fellow, which is the most coveted technical portfolio on offer. Steve Jobs The Apple co-owner and founder was one of the first entrepreneurs to have success with building personal computers, most notably the Apple II series. Steve Jobs was able to recognise the commercial viability of Xerox PARC's which a mouse-driven graphical user interface was. This led to the development of Apple Lisa and thereafter Macintosh. During this particular period, Jobs was instrumental in efforts that would latter revolutionise desktop publishing. This was quite notable through the successful introduction of associated PageMaker software as well as the LaserWriter (Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012). Conclusion Silicon Valley is commonly considered to be the epicenter of the computer bubble that began in the 1990s but withered a decade latter following the collapse and general decline of reputable world markets such as NASDAQ in 2000. During the booming period, prices of property in the Silicon Valley reached a record high as the growing economy attracted so many people and affiliated companies to the Valley. Silicon Valley maintained the status quo even after the economic boom for it is one of the few places globally with magnificent research and development centers. A survey carried out by The Wall Street Journal in 2006 found that most of the technologically inventive cities are located in the Silicon Valley. For example, San Jose is topping the list with over 3,000 utility patents recorded in 2005 (Albergotti 2006, pp 22-23). Bibliography Albergotti, R July 2006, "The Most Inventive Towns in America," Wall Street Journal, 22–23, P1. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012."Silicon Valley." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. Lécuyer, C 2006, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930–1970, MIT Press. Read More