The Rise of Silicon Valley: From Shockley Labs to Fairchild Semiconductor

On February 13, 1956, co-inventor of the transistor William Shockley formally announced the establishment of Shockley Labs, Silicon Valley’s first semiconductor company. In their modest Quonset hut laboratory on San Antonio Avenue in Mountain View, Shockley’s hand-picked team of some of the nation’s brightest young scientists and engineers developed innovative technologies and ideas that forever changed the way we live, work and play. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this pivotal event in the history of our region, join technology historian Michael Riordan in a conversation between early Shockley employees and associates Jim Gibbons, Jay Last, Hans Queisser, and Harry Sello.