is a history of the origins and development of silicon valley as a hub of electronics technology and industry, The story begins with the development of a small number of firms of producing vacuum tube in thes ands and continues as they become more numerous and skilled during the Second World War and companies building semiconductors start to appear in the lates ands becoming much more numerous and cutting edge by thes.
The book tries to trace the elements that lead to these developments by following developments at various firms such as EitelMcCullough Inc.
a vacuum tube maker and the Fairchild Semiconductor,
This is an academic history with lots of references to primary sources, such as company reports, correspondence from the time and lots of later communications and interviews with actors by the author and others.
Lécuyer includes accounts of broader softer factors such as the role of ham operators amateur radio enthusiasts in building up technical skill in the area before large scale vacuum tube occurred.
However harder and more direct factors are considered such as military procurement and research funding directives, The major focus of the narrative are
the individual careers of various engineers who founded companies and pursued innovation or production of vacuum tubes, later transistors and integrated circuits.
The role of the vacuum tube industry as building competencies later used in the semiconductor industry and also providing a business model for west coast firms is emphasized.
The role of larger more established east coast firms tends to be dealt with more tangentially in the narrative, While some technical discussion occurs about how certain technologies work much is left un discussed and this can be a bit disorienting.
I am still not quite clear on what a power vacuum tube is or what its specialized role in electronics is, The focus is almost exclusively on the actual component technology and the applications such as radar gets much less discussion, computers are barely described in any detail.
The story is framed by rise of Apple after the period of the narrative as something that the stage was set for in this earlier period and that has some key resonances with it.
Insights into Silicon Valleys hightech evolution
In the mids, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, founders of a Silicon Valley startup named Apple, asked Intel retiree Mike Markkula to invest in their firm.
Sensing that it could become a winner, he gave them,and, in, went to work for the company, Three years later, Apple went public and Markkula made millions, Time and again over the decades, this amazing story has repeated itself on the San Francisco Peninsula now known as Silicon Valley.
getAbstract finds that historian Christophe Lécuyer does a capable, intriguing, intricately researched job of taking readers behind the scenes to learn how Silicon Valley first developed, what makes it tick and what its hightech mastery has accomplished.
While some of the technical terms may require a learning curve, this is the place to learn about the center of technology in the U.
S. before it came to create and dominate the hightech industry, I n Making Silicon Valley, Christophe L'cuyer shows that the explosive growth of the personal computer industry in Silicon Valley was the culmination of decades of growth and innovation in the San Franciscoarea electronics industry.
Using the tools of science and technology studies, he explores the formation of Silicon Valley as an industrial district, from its beginnings as the home of a few radio enterprises that operated in the shadow of RCA and other East Coast firms through its establishment as a center of the electronics industry and a leading producer of power grid tubes, microwave tubes, and semiconductors.
He traces the emergence of the innovative practices that made this growth possible by following key groups of engineers and entrepreneurs, He examines the forces outside Silicon Valley that shaped the industry in particular the effect of military patronage and procurement on the growth of the industry and on the development of technologies and considers the influence of Stanford University and other local institutions of higher learning.
L'cuyer argues that Silicon Valley's emergence and its growth were made possible by the development of unique competencies in manufacturing, in product engineering, and in management.
Entrepreneurs learned to integrate invention, design, manufacturing, and sales logistics, and they developed incentives to attract and retain a skilled and motivated workforce.
The largest Silicon Valley firms including EitelMcCullough Eimac, Litton Industries, Varian Associates, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Intel dominated the American markets for advanced tubes and semiconductors and, because of their innovations in manufacturing, design, and management, served as models and incubators for other electronics ventures in the area.
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