Silicon Valley

What Does Silicon Valley Mean?

Silicon Valley is the home of the largest technology corporations in the U.S. It is located in Northern California, within the southern region of San Francisco. Silicon Valley was first given its name because of the many silicon chip creators and manufacturers there.

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Microprocessor technology was developed in Silicon Valley along with other vital computing technologies. These have contributed to the high-level operating systems used today.

Techopedia Explains Silicon Valley

Besides the microprocessor, Silicon Valley experts also created the microcomputer, or PC. They also used the Fairchild Semiconductor, which used silicon as the main semiconductor material. Two of the top semiconductor innovators, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, later formed Intel. By the 1970s, many of the biggest computer companies in the United States went on to include silicon semiconductors in their computer equipment, programming and services.

Other widely used technologies developed in Silicon Valley include the mouse and hypertext computer-association tools.

In recent years, Silicon Valley computer companies have been developing Internet services and various software, in addition to high-tech operating systems and user interfaces. Because of the high-tech production and software production that occurs in this area, the Silicon Valley has been heralded as having the highest-paying information technology jobs in the U.S.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…