LAMBDA TD Software
In 1947, William B. Shockley Jr. invented the silicon transistor at Bell Labs in New Jersey. He later left Bell Labs and Shockley scoured universities for the brightest graduates to build a company (Shockley Semiconductor Laboratories, 391 San Antonio Road, Mountain View, California) from scratch, one that would be run "his way". "His way" could generally be summed up as domineering and increasing...ly paranoid... In late 1957, eight of Shockley's researchers, who called themselves "The Traitorous Eight," resigned and left to work for Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation, and started Fairchild Semiconductor. "The Traitorous Eight" included Robert Noyce and Gordon E. Moore, who would later leave Fairchild and form Intel Corporation. Other offspring companies of Fairchild Semiconductor include National Semiconductor and Advanced Micro Devices. These people were known as "The Fairchildren". Thus, over the course of just 20 years, a mere eight of Shockleyās former employees gave forth 65 new enterprises, which then went on to do the same. Shockley Semiconductor and these companies formed the nucleus of what became Silicon Valley, which revolutionized the world of electronics and, indeed, the world itself.