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Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory
- Year
- 1956
- Creator
- William Shockley, Arnold Beckman
- Company
- Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, a division of Beckman Instruments
- Location
- 391 San Antonio Road, Mountain View, California
Description
William Shockley opened this laboratory in Mountain View in 1956 as a division of Beckman Instruments. The object shown is the lab's sales brochure for its four-layer diode, the product that Shockley wanted his team to make.
Importance
Shockley hired excellent young scientists, but his management and his choice of a difficult product made them unhappy. In 1957, eight of them left to start Fairchild Semiconductor, the source of many later chip companies. The IEEE calls the lab site the birthplace of Silicon Valley.
Interesting fact
Shockley received the Nobel Prize in Physics in December 1956, less than a year before eight of his staff resigned together.
Acquisition
Clevite Corporation · 1960
Sources
- 1956: Silicon Comes to Silicon Valley ↗Computer History Museum, The Silicon Engine
- Milestones: Birthplace of Silicon Valley, 1956 ↗IEEE, Engineering and Technology History Wiki · 2018-08-15
- Shockley Semiconductor ↗PBS, Transistorized!
- Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory ↗Wikipedia