HTTP://WWW.NSTI.ORG/NANOTECH2007/IMG/SILICON_VALLEY.JPG
The City of Tomorrow, TODAY!!

A Valley of Silicon??????
Silicon Valley is located in San Jose ,CA
and it is home to many of today’s
leading companies in computer, Internet
and venture capital businesses including
Google, HP, Oracle and Sun
Microsystems.
It is in close proximity to Stanford
University and is a major employer of
http://www.siliconvalleyhabitat.com/ESP3/goog1.jpg
many its computer science, engineering
and business students after they
graduate.
It is considered by many to be the
number one “hotbed” for technological
development along with Internet
entrepreneurship in the United States.

In The Early Days.....
In the 1950’s the U.S. Navy had a port in the
South San Francisco Bay and did much of
their research and testing in nearby San Jose
(Silicon Valley).
Simultaneously, many companies that sold
and developed silicon transistors, a new and
efficient electrical component at the time, had
their offices in the same area.
http://www.usmilitarystuff.com/images/us%2
0navy.jpg These events are important because they
drew electronic engineers and others to the
area who thought that they could lend their
research and talents to such companies
and/or the U.S. Navy.
http://www.ieee-virtual-
museum.org/media/Z7bP2SQuRX
1h.jpg

San Jose Pop. Growth
This chart indicates the rapid growth
1,000,000
of San Jose from the 1950’s to the
900,000 present day.
800,000
700,000 Note the especially drastic increase
600,000 between 1950 and 1990, that
correlates with the growing
500,000
development and popularity of the
400,000 San Jose Personal Computer and the silicon
300,000 Pop. transistor.
200,000 Growth
100,000 While we cannot attribute the entirety
0 of this increase to the computer
boom, it is safe to say that Silicon
Pop. 1990
Pop. 2008
Pop. 1950
Valley’s transistor and computer
sector has a role in drawing such a
large increase in population.

bp3.blogger.com/_wAFJzzGDAmc/SBnrYz29cuI/AAAA...
Companies with HQ’s in Silicon Valley
As you can see, the time between 1950 and today has shown huge
growth for the computer, Internet and electronics sector in Silicon Valley.

Industry Make-Up
 Out of the top ten companies in
Silicon Valley (in terms of sales), this
pie-graph represents their areas of
Computer specified business.
 As we see, companies like Hewlett-
Packard and Apple that focus solely
Semi on computer sales maintain a strong
Cond. position.
Transistor  However, take note of the “Other”
Internet part, representing companies that
specialize in areas like business
software and network equipment.
 What we learn from this is that while
Other Apple and HP may make the most
money, there is a lot of opportunity in
http://www.bayareanewsgroup.com/multimedia/mn/biz/spec specialized companies like Sun
ialreport/sv150bigchart.htm
Microsystems and Oracle.

Microsoft and Apple. Inc
 Today, we are all very familiar with the
competition between Microsoft and
Apple. While the commercials may be
comical, it is important to note that the
race between these two companies is
rooted in animosity over “who really
invented the PC”.
 Microsoft has always been ahead of
Apple, however Apple has been making
up for this in a recent renaissance in
which they have marketed such items
as the iPod and iPhone.
 Never the less, Microsoft is still the
leader in the operating systems market.
http://www.touchpodium.com/wp-  For further information on the story of
content/uploads/2008/03/microsoft_apple.png
each company’s rise, the docudrama
Pirates of Silicon Valley is both
accurate and entertaining.

The World Wide Web
 The computer industry in Silicon Valley was forever changed when the Internet
became a household necessity in mid 1990’s.
 The Internet was once a foreign concept to the average person, however with early,
simple search engines like Yahoo and Dogpile everyone was instantly able to share
information and connect with people from all over the world.
 Today, the Internet now rivals most other American industries including the
Automotive sector, this “boom” is due to the large amounts of companies, most from
the San Jose area, starting companies offering online services other than search
engines such as shopping, and trip booking. The main way that these companies
make money is through advertising.
 Outside of business, the Internet has become a forefront method of human
interaction and communication with innovations like instant messaging, e-mail and
social networking sites like Facebook.
 The future of the Internet looks to be headed in the direction of “user-created”
content such as blogs (or citizen journalism) and wiki’s

Internet Integration
As we see here, Silicon Valley’s various
Internet companies and services work
together as opposed to creating
competition with each other

Thank you!!!
 References of information:
 http://www.bayareanewsgroup.com/multimedia/mn/biz/specialreport/sv150bigchart.ht
m
 http://west.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/pager.php?id=93
 http://www.sanjoseca.gov/about.html
 Images obtained from:
 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5a/EBay_Logo.svg/800px-EBay_Logo.svg.png
(October 4, 2008)
 http://www.globalyouthsummit.org/resource/images/news/facebook_pic.jpg ( October 4, 2008)
 http://www.seomoz.org/img/upload/not-a-query-yahoo.gif (October 4, 2008)
 All other images referenced on respective pages.