Why "Silicon" valley?
While searching for some history on one of companies I worked for, I found Steve Black's web pages: Hidden in Plain Sight: The Secret History of Silicon Valley. It is a fascinating, well written, twelve web page long, 100 year history of electronics on the lower San Francisco Peninsula. He has video of a lecture he gave and includes the 133 slides from the talk. He also has an extensive bibliography.
I have read two of the books he recommends, and have reviews and excerpts from, The Inventor and the Pilot: Russell and Sigurd Varian, and Making Silicon Valley .
I cannot recommend the web site and the two books highly enough to those that lived or worked worked there. When you are trying to develop something, meet performance requirements, and satisfy contract schedules, you don't have time to think about the larger picture of why it is being done and why someone might want it.
That was my experience. Getting a low standing wave ratio match with a ridge wage guide coupler on the traveling wave tube, overshadowed any thought of how it might be used. Steve Black has changed that for me 57 years latter.
I have excerpted some paragraphs from his web site and some of his references that related directly to me and the companies I worked for.
(Some of the excerpts appear here as continuous, but are separated in the original. Will try to correct that later. Better yet, read the original!)
I have read two of the books he recommends, and have reviews and excerpts from, The Inventor and the Pilot: Russell and Sigurd Varian, and Making Silicon Valley .
I cannot recommend the web site and the two books highly enough to those that lived or worked worked there. When you are trying to develop something, meet performance requirements, and satisfy contract schedules, you don't have time to think about the larger picture of why it is being done and why someone might want it.
That was my experience. Getting a low standing wave ratio match with a ridge wage guide coupler on the traveling wave tube, overshadowed any thought of how it might be used. Steve Black has changed that for me 57 years latter.
I have excerpted some paragraphs from his web site and some of his references that related directly to me and the companies I worked for.
(Some of the excerpts appear here as continuous, but are separated in the original. Will try to correct that later. Better yet, read the original!)