Research Post #2 - California Bay Area Connection

On California Bay Area Connection
Technology, invention, development, and design are popular association that people make with the California Bay Area. Nicknamed Silicon Valley, there is no disputing the connection between California Bay Area and technology. After all, Silicon Valley is home to many large companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce, and many more.
The origins of the connection between technology and the California Bay Area actually arose out of Cold War tensions. When the Russians launched Sputnik, the first artificial man-made satellite to orbit Earth, Americans were shocked by the communist's massive scientific leap forward. It didn't help the American psyche that Russians even launched Sputnik II into orbit before the United States could. As a result of competitive Cold War interactions between the United States of America and USSR, Americans "feared that the Soviets' ability to launch satellites also translated into the capability to launch ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons from Europe to the U.S." (Garber, 2007). This fear did not limit Americans; it drove many deep into scientific and technological development. This led to the invention of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which required advanced conductors and semi-conductors for various technologies.

This is where Silicon Valley makes its way into our story; it was that need for powerful components that created the demand satisfied by the California Bay Area. In fact, Fairchild Semiconductor, creator of semiconductors, was the first manufacturer in the Bay Area and spurred "Silicon Valley’s innovative, risk-taking culture" (Haroun, 2014). At first it was the hardware companies that emerged. Companies such as AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel (all still thriving today) spearheaded hardware development by creating processors and graphics processing units (also known as GPUs). After hardware followed the software industry (like Adobe, Symantec, and VMWare), who specialized in programming and software engineering. Finally, the Internet industry came to Silicon Valley (often characterized by the later development of the Cloud). The result is an entrepreneurial hotbed of both well established companies and smaller start ups with room for programmers, hardware specialists, as well as hundreds of other working professionals willing to immerse themselves in the future.

Garber, Steve. "Sputnik And The Dawn Of The Space Age". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. N.p., 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Haroun, Chris. "A Brief History Of Silicon Valley, The Region That Revolutionizes How We Do Everything". Entrepreneur. N.p., 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.