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• Robert Noyce Goes to Silicon Valley

  As an undergraduate student, Robert Noyce sees the technical reports on the brand new transistor and knew he was looking at the future. "The concept hit me like the atom bomb," he later recalled. But he does not like the structure of the large East Coast tech companies.

• The Wild West in Silicon Valley

  During the early days of Silicon Valley, physicists and engineers from various companies in the valley would meet at "The Wagon Wheel," a hangout for Fairchild employees and for people who worked at Fairchild spin-off companies. As one Fairchild employee put it, the Wagon Wheel was a hub of networking.

• Silicon Valley and the Digital Revolution

  Introduced in 1971, the microprocessor is basically the fundamental driving force and brain of all of the digital equipment we use today -- from iPhones and computers to notebooks and tablets.

• What Does Silicon Valley Mean to You?

  What is "Silicon Valley" to you - a person, a place, a culture? Share your story with American Experience.