An industrial zone about 32 kilometers long is located between Palo Alto (Parateau) and San Jose (San Jose) in California. Many companies that manufacture and design computer chips are located here, and their names are derived from the high-purity silicon used to manufacture these electronic devices.
The word Silicon Valley was first used by Hofler, editor of local newspaper, in 197 1, which refers to the southern tip of San Francisco Bay. It starts from Menlo Park and Parateau, passes through Mountain View and Sunnyvale, reaches Santa Clara, the center of Silicon Valley, and then turns to San Jose via Campbell.
It is neither a stone-rich canyon nor a noisy and crowded street, but a series of emerging small cities under the shade of blue sky. Since the 1960s, this area has developed rapidly, becoming a high-tech industrial center, creating huge material wealth and making extraordinary achievements that we are proud of.
The history of Silicon Valley should start from Stanford University. 1885, Leland Stanford Sr, a famous railway king in the midwest of the United States, donated 8,800 mu of land near Parateau and 20 million dollars to establish Stanford University 189 1. Today, Stanford University has become a world-class university.
The International Teachers' Association ranks the top ten universities in the world as Stanford University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, Cambridge University, Yale University, Oxford University, University of Tokyo and technical university of munich.
Of course, there are other rankings, but it is convincing that Stanford has always topped the list. Stanford is the youngest of the ten world-class universities mentioned above, but it is like a powerful locomotive, driving the long trains in Silicon Valley to move forward rapidly. This is the basic image of the high-tech park as we know it.
1906, read forest invented the vacuum tube, and the Federal Telegraph Company where he worked was in Parateau. 19 12 with the help of Stanford university, he successfully developed an electronic amplifier, which opened the curtain of modern electronic technology.
Create Stanford research park
Frederic Terman, a graduate of Stanford University from 65438 to 0920, has been a professor at MIT, Harvard and Stanford successively. He was brilliant and played a very important role in the development of Silicon Valley. 1939, under the guidance and support of Terman, two of his students, Bill Park Jung Su and Dave Packard, set up a company in a garage with a capital of $538 and started to produce electronic instruments. This is the origin of the famous HP company. 1995 HP's revenue is $31500 million, its profit is $2.4 billion, and its global employees are 65,438+2,000. The garage founded by Hewlett-Packard Company was declared as the birthplace of Silicon Valley by the California government and became an important tourist attraction.
Another important contribution of Professor Terman is that he put forward the idea of establishing Stanford Research Park in 195 1. This is a high-tech industrial park near the earliest university in the world. 1955 Seven companies moved into the park, and 1906 increased to 32, and 1985 expanded to more than 90. These companies not only trust the latest technology of the university, but also rent 655 acres of land in the university, and the continuous land rent income has become the economic source of Stanford University. This is also one of the reasons for the prosperity of Stanford University.
1955 the westward movement of William Shockley is an important milestone in the start of silicon valley semiconductor. Shockley 19 10 was born in London, England, and then moved to Parateau, USA. 1973 worked in Bell Laboratories. 1947 65438+On February 23rd, He, theoretical physicist and experimental physicist Bratin made the world's first crystal Hugh tube, which some people called "the most important invention of this century". 1949, shockley put forward the theory of PN junction, and the germanium crystal bushing with PN junction was made the following year. Because of these far-reaching inventions, the three of them shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics.
From 65438 to 0955, shockley returned to Parateau and set up his own company, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. Prior to this, the immature semiconductor industry has been concentrated in Boston in the eastern United States and Long Island, new york. shockley's company is the first real semiconductor company in Silicon Valley. He called eight outstanding young people from the East, known as "shockley Eight Masters", including robert noyce, Gordon Moore, Spock, Pierre Lamond and others. 1960 shockley sold his company and went to teach at Stanford. The semiconductor laboratory he founded died, but the seeds he planted thrived in Silicon Valley.
Under the leadership of Noyce, "shockley Eight Masters" collectively jumped ship at 1957, left Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory and established Fairchild Semiconductor Company with the support of industrialist Fairchild. Fairchild Company is headquartered in new york, and there are many related enterprises besides cameras and instruments, among which Fairchild Semiconductor Company located in Mountain View, Silicon Valley has the fastest development.
Start a business soon. Because Noyce invented integrated circuit technology, which can integrate multiple transistors on one chip, Fairchild has made rapid development from the beginning. 1965, Moore summed up the law that the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles every 18 months, which is called Moore's law. Although it was summarized according to the data of 1959-65, it is still valid today. 1967, Fairchild Semiconductor, which was founded years ago, has reached1960,000 USD.
At this time, it is the initial stage of the formation of Silicon Valley. The whole environment of Silicon Valley is full of vitality and prosperity, and new companies are born almost every week. Fairchild is also undergoing an earth-shattering revolution.
1967 At the beginning of this year, Spock and Raymond decided to leave Fairchild Semiconductor Company and set up National Semiconductor Company in Santa Clara. 1968 Jerry Sanders, marketing manager of Fairchild Company, founded advanced micro-devices, namely AMD Company. Now ultramicro technology has become the second largest computer chip manufacturer in the world. 1968 In July, Noyce, Moore and Grove left Fairchild and founded Intel, headquartered in Santa Clara. Today, Intel has developed into the world's largest semiconductor integrated circuit manufacturer, accounting for 80% of the global share in the central market.
1976 apple computer company was established.
1970, gene Amdahl left the international business machine and established Amdahl Company in Sunnyvale, specializing in the production and development of machines compatible with the international business machine mainframe, which surpassed the international business machine system in cost performance and became a model for small companies to challenge the big hegemon. 1974 Federico Faggin, with the support of oil giant Daniel F. Akerson, established Zilog Company in Cambre (he once led the design of Intel's early 4004 chips). 1975, the company introduced a very successful Z80 chip. 1975, Roger Mellon founded Comemco Company in Mountain View. He is a graduate of Stanford and named the company after the dormitory where he lived at school. The microcomputers produced by this company first entered the China market.
From 65438 to 0976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, two friends of the same name who grew up in Silicon Valley, founded Apple Computer Company in Cupertino. They didn't finish college (Jobs dropped out of Reed University to join Hewlett-Packard, and Woz left Berkeley to join atari as a computer worker). Because Jobs is well-run, Woz is good at technology, and their advantages complement each other, which makes the company develop rapidly. Apple II introduced by 1977 has always been an important role of 8-bit microcomputer, and Macintosh introduced by 1984 is a user-friendly model, which is widely used in the field of art design and publishing. Apple has always been at the forefront of microcomputer technology, and the turnover of 1995 is still11300 million US dollars.
198 1 was a disastrous year for Fairchild semiconductor. Its wafer factory in the south of San Jose experienced a large amount of leakage of toxic solution. The company had to spend120 thousand dollars to replace soil and monitor water quality. So Fairchild gradually closed down and disappeared. People will never forget its great achievements in developing silicon wafer technology. Fairchild employees have established more than 100 companies in Silicon Valley and even the whole country, which has far-reaching influence.
1982, another brilliant name Sun Microsystems appeared in Silicon Valley. Shengyang was originally the abbreviation of Stanford University Network. The three founders, AndyBechtolsheim, vinod khosla and Scott McNealy, are all young people in their prime. Scott McNealy, the chairman and president of the company, graduated from the Economics Department of Harvard University and obtained a master's degree in management from Stanford University. He is the same age as the world software giant Bill Gates, and he is confident that he can compete with him. Shengyang Company has achieved a leading position in the field of workstations, and its Sparc/Solaris platform is active in the dynamic field of client/server.
With the rapid development of Internet in recent one or two years, the new generation programming language Java introduced by Shenyang Company has become a recognized Esperanto on the Internet. On this basis, Sunrise, together with IBM, Apple and other companies, put forward the concept of network computer, trying to set off a new revolution in the computer field and break the monopoly position of Microsoft and Intel.
Five factor that are crucial to that development of Silicon Valley
Above, we described the development outline of Silicon Valley through the growth of HP, Intel, Apple and Shengyang. There are many world-famous companies in Silicon Valley. For example, in Mountain View, there are Netscape Communications (the world-famous web browsing software "Navigator") and Adobe Systems (the best desktop publishing system provider in the world, such as Photoshop and Adobe Pagemaker). ), Instuit (excellent financial software developer), System Plus, etc. Santa Clara and 3Com, BayNetworks,
Claris, mcafee United Company, Air Communication Company,
Memorex，Plextor，AmericanMicrosystem，Phoenix Technologies，
Insignia solution, UB network, etc. Unisys is also in San Jose,
AcerAmerica, Cisco Systems, Sony Electronics, ADISystems,
Maggie network company, diamond multimedia system company,
Software publishing, call technology, etc.
Both cities and society have their own internal development mechanisms, not only relying on human factors, but also Silicon Valley. There are many reasons for the success of Silicon Valley. I think the following factors are crucial to the development of Silicon Valley:
1. Good natural conditions. San Francisco Bay is known as "natural air conditioning" because of its superior geographical conditions, abundant sunshine and comfortable climate. The affluent quality of life in Northern California attracts people to live and work here.
2. Active social environment. Many people in Silicon Valley come from the eastern United States and western Europe. They are attracted by the special opportunities in California to get rid of the shackles of conventional culture and bureaucracy. As a venture capitalist said: "The East is the territory of big companies, and the barriers are strict, so it is difficult for individuals to stand in it. California is the front line. There is no fixed model in terms of economy, society and organizational form. The most important thing is that it really values individuals. " In recent years, many young people all over the world have realized their entrepreneurial dreams in Silicon Valley. Of course, many people have failed. I'm afraid there are many more companies that have closed down in Silicon Valley than those that have succeeded.
Three. Good infrastructure. With convenient transportation and fast communication, the world-class Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley have provided strong scientific and technological support and excellent, rich and mobile high-tech talents. All these have created a good technical and commercial environment.
4. Talent advantage. We find that the management talents who lead high-tech enterprises in Silicon Valley are all generalists who know both technology and management. Many people are not only technical authorities or innovators in related fields, but also have extraordinary leadership skills and personality charm. Only in this way can high-quality talents be in an invincible position in the fierce competition environment, and the profitable business environment, personal pursuit of entrepreneurship and cherish of profits have prompted many talented people to set up their own homes, forming the colorful face of Ma Benteng in Silicon Valley today. This is the charm of high-tech industry. Technology is changing rapidly, and talented people can easily break out of their own world.
5. Take science and technology as the guide. A remarkable feature of American high-tech enterprises is that they invest a lot of resources in scientific research. They often start with some original technologies, and then constantly improve their products and expand their market share. For example, since the 1970s, the number of transistors on Intel microprocessors has doubled every 18 months, which is quite in line with Moore's law. In the fierce competition, only one step ahead in technology can be in an invincible position, even large companies dare not neglect it slightly. The result of competition is the progress and popularization of technology, which cultivates the market and makes the whole information industry get rich profits. In the process of scientific and technological development, a number of universities such as Stanford have contributed greatly. They not only sent a large number of scientific and technological talents to the business community, but also became the backing of technological progress with their solid basic research, and constantly transformed scientific research results into social productive forces. Moreover, there is close communication between business circles and universities, and practical experience can be quickly fed back to basic research. This virtuous circle promotes the development of technology.
The developed capital market of intransitive verbs. Entrepreneurship of American high-tech enterprises is closely related to venture capital. 1976 When Apple Computer Company was founded, Markkula, an investment entrepreneur, invested 90,000 US dollars and borrowed 250,000 US dollars, accounting for 30% of the shares, thus promoting the development of Apple Computer and making revolutionary personal computers a new industry. Adobe 1982 was founded by H&, a famous venture capital company. Q's support, the latter has gained a hundredfold profit return; After growing up, Adobe and H & ampq jointly established a new venture capital company, and supported the start-up high-tech enterprises, which also gained rich returns.
The venture capital of the above two companies originated from original scientific research results, and the venture capital transformed the results in time to occupy the market, forming two emerging industries, personal computer and desktop publishing respectively. Without the participation of venture capital, it is difficult for one person or several people to develop rapidly with limited financial resources. There are many professional high-quality investors in the United States, who have rich investment experience. An original technology can easily attract a lot of capital investment, so it is often heard in the United States that high-tech personnel become billionaires overnight.
Silicon Valley is a valuable example for us to study high-tech parks. As the embryonic form of the information society and the home of high-tech talents, Silicon Valley is both a paradise and a misery. Fierce competition among high-tech companies, seemingly high-profit undertakings, actually hides high risks, and success or failure is often in an instant. Behind the success of Silicon Valley, it has also paid a heavy price. Environmental pollution, family disintegration, poor culture and class differences are insurmountable. So Americans say: There is only one Silicon Valley, and maybe there will always be one in the future. The information industry and its behavior of people in Silicon Valley provide a useful model for the economic structure and cultural form of the future society. People who care about and support the development of high-tech industries in China must know this history, and we should always pay attention to its new development trend as our reference.