Celebrating Silicon Genesis

On September 14th, Stanford University Libraries will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Silicon Genesis, its longest-running and widest-ranging oral history project. Imagined and launched by Rob Walker, an insider among early engineers, Silicon Genesis evolved from its grassroots beginnings to become a multi-decade effort within the Libraries’ Silicon Valley Archives to record the history of the semiconductor.

Rob Walker worked at Fairchild Semiconductor before moving to Intel and later co-founding LSI Logic Corporation. The casual style of his recordings of colleagues at those companies remains the model today for ongoing interviews being conducted for the Silicon Genesis project. The oral history archive provides unrivaled access to the pioneers of a nascent Silicon Valley, including notable figures such as Gordon Moore, Jerry Sanders, and Jensen Huang.

The “insider’s view” is what makes Silicon Genesis truly invaluable. The stories it captures and the archival materials it collects about the early days of Silicon Valley, and particularly the semiconductor technology, are from those who not only lived in those times but shaped them. Today, as Stanford University Libraries prepare to mark Silicon Genesis’ 30th anniversary, we are reminded of Silicon Valley’s start by looking at one catalyst day in technology history – September 23, 1955 – thoughtfully preserved by an eyewitness and participant, Rob Walker, and the staff and volunteers who have carried on the project since his passing in 2016.

On September 23, 1955, Wiliam Shockley decided to leave New Jersey where he had lived for a decade and move westward. The day turned out to be one of the most momentous days in modern history for the state of California. A mere five months later, in February of 1956, Shockley, who was a co-inventor of the transistor, started a new company in Mountain View, California – Shockley Semiconductor. Shortly thereafter the first silicon semiconductors were made in what is now known as Silicon Valley.

Shockley was a brilliant man who wanted to surround himself with other brilliant men. He was already well known and was soon to win a Nobel Prize for the invention of the transistor, so he had little difficulty hiring those people. In fact, he hired the very best PhDs from the very best schools – Cal Tech, Berkeley, MIT, Stanford and the like. That sounds like a perfect recipe to build a team that would conquer the world. It wasn’t.

Shockley was a terrible manager. In fact, according to Joel Shurkin’s definitive biography of Shockley, "He may have been the worst manager in the history of electronics." Eight of his very best people resigned en masse one morning with no idea of what they might do next. Shockley named those eight men the Traitorous Eight. He thought that his company could thrive with or without them. He was wrong. Shockley Semiconductor failed not long afterward; its founder would go on to become infamous for his extreme views on race and human intelligence. The Traitorous Eight all went on to various degrees of fame but three were particularly important: Bob Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Eugene Kleiner.

After a few months of struggling, the eight connected with Sherman Fairchild, a wealthy entrepreneur, and put together a company dedicated to making silicon transistors. Fairchild Semiconductor, as the company was named, will always be remembered because in 1959 while working at Fairchild, Bob Noyce invented the integrated circuit – the silicon “chip.”

Soon after, while also working at Fairchild, Gordon Moore asserted what was later to become known as Moore’s Law: The number of components in an integrated circuit will double every year. He didn’t verbalize the famous statement but diagrammed it in a graph for an Electronic Design magazine article titled, “Cramming more components into an integrated circuit.”

Each of the Traitorous Eight eventually left Fairchild to form their own semiconductor start-ups. In 1965, Eugene Kleiner left Fairchild to co-found Amelco. His second, better-known start-up was the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. His thought, which proved to be right, was that he could make more money funding the myriads of startups being formed than he could by doing another chip startup. Thus, the Traitorous Eight also played a key role in the creation of the VC business in Silicon Valley.

At about the same time, former Fairchild employee Don Hoefler began using the term “Silicon Valley” in the industry’s main broadsheet, Electronic News. He then launched his own weekly newsletter, Microelectronic News. Hoefler knew most of the important players at the time and his newsletter was somewhat controversial. He is the person responsible for the name we’ve all grown accustomed to – Silicon Valley.

For at least two decades, the silicon chip ruled the valley, and the chip makers were its most exciting and admired companies. Eventually, though, the acclaim was redirected to the networking companies, then the dotcom companies, then the social networking companies, etc. Seemingly forgotten like the unseen 85% of an iceberg, the continually improving silicon chips from the companies that had given Silicon Valley its name still lie at the foundations of everything that the later companies do.

Silicon Valley contributed immensely to the prosperity of the state of California. Many of the pioneers have passed away. On September 14, the Silicon Genesis staff and volunteers will host a private event to honor the still living pioneers, as Stanford University Libraries celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of the oral history project which in some ways is as groundbreaking and enduring as the semiconductor industry that inspired it.

Learn more about Silicon Genesis.