A View of US-Japan Competition in Semiconductors

The development of the semiconductor industry was initiated at the Bell Laboratories with the invention of the transistor. Interest in the transistor spread rapidly, and in the United States the center of action moved to a new set of companies, most of which had never participated in the vacuum tube business in an important way. A history of entrepreneurship was developed, and the national center of the semiconductor industry developed in the Santa Clara Valley--"Silico Valley"--in California. There a detailed industry infrastructure developed, with a set of small companies providing materials, processing equipment, and test equipment as well as the components themselves.