Video: S25 Ep3: Silicon Valley | Watch American Experience Online

Want better video quality? Sign in to access HD streaming!

Want to watch better-quality PBS Video? Sign in to access HD streaming!

When you sign in, you'll become a PBS Insider and we'll share your contact information with your local PBS station. You may receive updates to help you stay connected with what's happening online and in your community. Privacy Policy

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

S25 Ep3: Silicon Valley

Aired: 02/05/2013
01:23:11
Expires: 12/15/2015
Rating: NR

Led by physicist Robert Noyce, Fairchild Semiconductor began as a start-up company whose radical innovations would help make the United States a leader in both space exploration and the personal computer revolution, changing the way the world works, plays, and communicates. Noyce's invention of the microchip ultimately re-shaped the future, launching the world into the Information Age.

facebook
twitter
more
share

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

S25 Ep3: Silicon Valley

Robert Noyce's invention of the microchip launched the world into the Information Age.

Width:

Height:

Please copy this text to your clipboard.

Problems Playing Video ?

For Season 25 of American Experience, exclusive corporate funding is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance, major funding by The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS stations.

LEARN MORE

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.