Silicon Valley Genealogy (1983)

“Here we get a clear and authoritative view of who begat who from the beginning of the Silicon Valley revolution. Not only was Don Hoefler the writer that coined the term “Silicon Valley”, and a constant presence throughout tech culture, but his partner in the project, Jack Yelverton was a veteran of Fairchild Semiconductor that became a force in several companies and finally founded his own.

To understand the ecosystem and its history there may be no better genealogy, that echoes back to the royalty charts from centuries prior, where succession and relationship identify streams of power. Beginning with fathers of the transistor (Walter Brattain, John Bardeen and William Shockley), we see where Shockley leaves the fertile environment of Bell Labs and plants his new company “Shockley Transistors” in the great potential that could be found in Palo Alto. From this one root company we see the “traitorous eight” escape to make “Fairchild Semiconductor”, and quickly, year by year, new companies would spring up and multiply, many times pulling talent and vision from that initial group at Fairchild. This is a rare publication that was created for the 1983 Semicon, a conference that was held annually and still exists today.” (Curtis Bird, 2023)

— From publication note.