背景资料回目录
History & Future
by Gregory Gromov
| Silicon Valley is the only place on Earth not trying to figure out how to become Silicon Valley. ~Robert Metcalfe |
The term Silicon Valley was used occasionally mostly byeasterners who would mention making a trip to Silicon Valley, until 1971 when it was popularized in a series of articles, ``Silicon Valley USA,'' written by Don Hoefler for Electronic News. Quite likely it was the first time the term was used in print (Don C. Hoefler, publisher of Microelectronics News, telephone interview, 9 January 1985) ...
Hoefler was choosing a name for an article about the semiconductor industry that he was writing for Electronic News. Ralph Vaerst, then president of Ion Equipment, suggested Silicon Valley. Hoefler named his article, ``Silicon Valley USA;'' it was a series that ran for 3 weeks, beginning 11 January 1971."
~ Carolyn Tajnai, 1995
In 1971, in a series of articles that Hoefler wrote for ELECTRONIC NEWS, a weekly tabloid, he first used the phrase "SiliconValley" to describe the congeries of electronics firms mushroomingin Santa Clara county. "He pioneered the coverage of Silicon Valley as a distinct community," - said Michael S. Malone,author of a book chronicling the industry called THE BIG SCORE."When we think of Silicon Valley as a collection of charactersand eccentrics, he's the one who put that whole idea in our minds,"- said Malone.
Hoefler began his career in electronics journalism as a publicist for Fairchild Semiconductor in Mountain View. He subsequently worked as a reporter for Fairchild Publications, owner of ELECTRONIC NEWS, and then held editorial positions with RCA Corp. and with McGrawHill.
Don C. Hoefler died in South San Francisco on April 15, 1986 at the ageof 63. He was publishing a weekly newsletter called MICROELECTRONICS NEWS at the time of his death, following a recent cerebrovascular accident
Datamation ,1986, May 15, by Cahners Publishing Company
(read more about Don C. Hoefler).
Why 1971 ?
On November 15, 1971 Intel created the world's first microprocessor: the Intel 4004.
What does Silicon Valley mean geographically?
Silicon Valley is an area that "located on the San Francisco, California, peninsula, radiates outward from Stanford University. It is contained by the San Francisco Bay on the east, the Santa Cruz Mountains on the west, and the Coast Range to the southeast. At the turn of the century, when fruit orchards predominated, the area was known as the Valley of Heart's Delight" - as Carolyn E. Tajnai, former Director (1988 - 1997) of Stanford Computer Forum begins one of her online-manuscripts that described Silicon Valley history.
According to the "Silicon Valley Joint Venture Index 2000 the Silicon Valley's cities were located around the South side of San Francisco Bay:
10 years later the above viewpoint of Silicon Valley Joint Venture was changed:
The geographical boundaries of Silicon Valley vary. The region's core has been defined as Santa Clara County plus adjacent parts of San Mateo, Alameda and Santa Cruz Counties. In order to reflect the geographic expansion of the region's driving industries and employment, the 2011 Index includes all of San Mateo County. Silicon Valley is defined as the following cities: Santa Clara County (all) Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Sunnyvale Alameda County Fremont, Newark, Union City San Mateo County (all) Atherton, Belmont, Brisbane, Broadmoor, Burlingame, Colma, Daly City, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Pacifica, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, South San Francisco, Woodside Santa Cruz County Scotts Valley Santa Clara San Jose Newark Fremont Union City. The Silicon Valley Joint Venture Index 2011
According to the Silicon Valley Joint Venture Index 2011, Silicon Valley Population: 3 millions; Jobs: 1.3 millions.
Census data for 2010 show median household income was ... $83,944 for the San Jose region, the epicenter of Silicon Valley (WSJ, Oct. 19, 2011 ), compared with the nationwide median of $50,046. (San Jose Mercury News, Oct. 19, 2011)
Home Prices in the US Leading High Tech Centers:
Source: 2011 Silicon Valley Information and Communications Technologies Study
Source: Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, Inc.
Silicon Valley jobs: A recurring cycle of boom and bust By Pete Carey
Over the past 15 years, Silicon Valley has created some of the world's most successful companies and best-paid workers, while shedding the jobs and industries it no longer needs. As 2011 begins, the drama of job creation and destruction continues ... the number of jobs in the valley today is about the same as in 1995, the year Yahoo was founded and three years before Google was born. Over the same period, the population has grown by 20 percent. And, amid the Great Recession, the number of people here who are unemployed -- hovering around 100,000 for a year and a half -- is the highest since the state began keeping comparable records in 1990. (San Jose Mercury News, January 1, 2011)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 08, 2009.
High-tech employment in Silicon Valley:
Where from?
Source: Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, Inc.
Three years later the following - more detailed comparison - data were published:
Source: How Indians defied gravity and achieved success in Silicon Valley by October 15, 2012
The process of transforming San Francisco Bay Area to the India's Silicon Valley will continue for lot of different reasons including the following - significantly more English speaking IT engineers graduates in the India than in any other countries:
Four-Year Bachelor's Degrees in Engineering, Computer Science, and Information Technology Awarded from 1999 to 2004 in the United States vs. India,
| 1999-2000 | 2000-2001 | 2001-2002 | 2002-2003 | 2003-2004 | 2004-2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 108,750 | 114,241 | 121,263 | 134,406 | 137,437 | 133,854 |
| India | 82,107 | 109,376 | 129,000 | 139,000 | 170,000 |
Indians have founded more engineering and technology companies [in US] during that past decade than immigrants from Britain, China, Taiwan, and Japan combined.
Source: Where the Engineers Are. By Vivek Wadhwa, Gary Gereffi, Ben Rissing, Ryan Ong. University of Texas at Dallas
See also:
- Indian Government aims to create 28 Million Jobs In Electronics By 2020. For comparison, there are a total of 5.75 million workers in the U.S. high-tech industry. ( U.S. High-Tech Jobs Down Again in 2010 By Brian Heaton, October 5, 2011)
- US ends India tech restrictions. Wharton Aerospace & Defense Report, February 04, 2011
Total equity investments into venture-backed companies
PricewaterhouseCoopers data show that Silicon Valley took 40% of venture funding in 2012:
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers & National Venture Capital Association
According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers & National Venture Capital Association 2010 Report, Silicon Valley attracted 40 percent of total US venture capital dollars and 30 percent of total US deals. New England was a distant second at 11 percent of total US funding and 12 percent of total deals:
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers & National Venture Capital Association
Intellectual property:
Source: Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, Inc.
Highest Patent Producing Metro areas
(Each city listed includes surrounding areas)
| States | Metro areas | Annual averages (2007-2011) patents producing | |
| California | Silicon Valley | San Jose | 9,237 |
| San Francisco | 7,003 | ||
| Los Angeles | 5,456 | ||
| San Diego | 3,165 | ||
| New York | New York | 6,907 | |
| Washington | Seattle | 3,968 | |
| Massachusetts | Boston | 3,965 | |
| Illinois | Chicago | 3,886 | |
Data sources: Brookings Institution analysis as it was quoted by Mike Cassidy at "Silicon Valley won't remain the country's patent leader without sensible immigration and education action" 02/01/2013
See also:
Source: US Patent and Trademark Office
Silicon Valley Top Companies:
Regis McKenna: ' About every 10 years there is a new industry that arises here in Silicon Valley. Of the top 15 companies [in the region], 12 of those companies were formed in the past 15 years, they generate $600 billion of revenues, and employ about three-quarters of the people in Silicon Valley, and they were all entrepreneurial companies 15 years ago. So we continue to see this sort of churning and creating of new industries.'
Source: San Jose Mercury News, 2011 Silicon Valley 150 listings.
Silicon Valley Top 5 Companies by R&D
Source: 2011 Silicon Valley Information and Communications Technologies Study
- Source: "Education and Tech Entrepreneurship" by Vivek Wadhwa, Richard Freeman, Ben Rissing.
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 2008
About 60 years ago, Stanford University had some financial problems. The authorities of university tried to resolve these problems by leasing part of the university land to high-tech companies for 99 years.
Carolyn Tajnai clarified this point of Stanford's history in more detail:
' In the 1950's, the idea of building an industrial park arose. The university had plenty of land over 8,000 acres....but money was needed to finance the University's rapid postwar growth. The original bequest of his farm by Leland Stanford prohibited the sale of this land, but there was nothing to prevent its being leased. It turned out that long-term leases were just as attractive to industry as out right ownership; thus, the Stanford Industrial Park was founded. The goal was to create a center of high technology close to a cooperative university. It was a stroke of genius , and Terman, calling it ``our secret weapon,'' quickly suggested that leases be limited to high technology companies that might be benspanananficial to Stanford. In 1951 Varian Associates signed a lease, and in 1953 the company moved into the first building in the park. Eastman Kodak, General Electric, Preformed Line Products, Admiral Corporation, Shockley Transistor Laboratory of Beckman Instruments, Lockheed, Hewlett-Packard, and others followed soon after.' Fred Terman, The father of Silicon Valley by Carolyn Tajnai, 1995
| 'Gradually, facilities were moved from leased quarters in San Carlos to a quiet corner of Stanford land, thus creating what is today the Company's headquarters site, and incidentally bringingi nto being the Stanford Industrial Park - the most successful complex of its kind in the world.' Source: Varian Associates: An Early History |
The First building of Silicon Valley
| First Varian Associates building, Stanford Industrial Park, Palo Alto, California, 1953. Source: 'Russell and Sigurd Varian - The Inventor and The Pilot', by Dorothy Varian. Palo Alto, 1983, p.258. |
The picture is reproduced here with Varian Associates permission since 1995.
| Is it a reasonable doubt or ... just invitation to the further discussion? | |
Among the different organizations that were instrumental in the process of creating Silicon Valley the significant role was the Stanford Research Institute (SRI):
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Perhaps it was just one of the reasons why at least some of SRI people appeared to be very skeptical about the above photo of Silicon Valley's building #1. Alice Resnick Senior Director, Corporate and Marketing Communications SRI International wrote to us concerning this subject
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In 1995 William Hewlett decided to described in more details his own concept of Silicon Valley's birth.
