Chip Wars
I’ve spent over 25 years in Silicon Valley, starting my career at VLSI Technology in San Jose creating specialized silicon chips called ASICs. With my background in electronics, I thought I knew a bit about the history and business of silicon, including how this area became Silicon Valley.
In Silicon Valley on the Couch, Malcolm Gladwell explores why William Shockley, inventor of the transistor, winner of the Nobel Prize, father of Silicon Valley, set up shop in the Bay Area.
Shockley didn’t invent the transistor in Northern California. He invented it in New Jersey, at the famous Bell Labs in Murray Hill, about 10 miles outside of Newark. Then he left Bell Labs and took a teaching job at Caltech in Pasadena, just outside of Los Angeles. And after a stint there and a stint at the Pentagon, he decides to strike out on his own. He lines up a wealthy backer. He starts a company called Shockley Semiconductor, and he recruits the best and the brightest from all around the country. Everyone comes from somewhere else to a Quonset hut on 391 San Antonio Road in Mountain View.
But why Mountain View, CA?
The telegram is addressed to Mrs. W.H. Shockley 261 Waverly Street, Palo Alto. Let me read that to you again, in case you missed it. 261 Waverly Street, Palo Alto, California. William Shockley’s mother, May Shockley, lived in Palo Alto. You could walk from her house to 391 San Antonio Road, where Shockley so mysteriously chose to launch his revolution. Why did the Santa Clara Valley become the birthplace of the computer age? Because someone wanted to be close to mom.
However, reading Chris Miller’s ‘Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology’ revealed significant gaps in my knowledge. The book introduced me to crucial figures, places and companies I’d never encountered.
For example, Jack Kilby, working at Texas Instruments, is as key to the invention of the integrated circuit, as Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor.
After being passed over for CEO at Texas Instruments, Morris Chang moved to Taiwan and founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Today, TSMC produces the world’s most advanced chips for Apple, Nvidia, and others - making it crucial to both Taiwan’s economy and security. Morris Chang is considered the father of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry.
But there are so many more characters I didn’t know: John Bardeen, Patrick Haggerty, the Parkinsons, and Irwin Jacobs.
The book also covers big failures, such as Zelenograd, and surprising successes, like, San Diego’s Cymer.
This book is much more than a history of the transistor. It puts the recent headlines about the trade war with China in context.
“US announces new export controls on China’s chip industry”
“China hits out at latest US effort to block Beijing’s access to chip technology”
“US to Launch a Third Crackdown on China’s Chipmakers”
“China warns it will take action if US implements new chip control measures”
This is a big deal to especially China, the USA, and surely Taiwan. As long as Taiwan produces the world’s most advanced silicon, it is relatively safe from China.
“Semiconductors had become the new oil - a crucial resource without which the modern economy couldn’t function.”
“Beijing’s semiconductor ambitions weren’t simply about economic efficiency. They were about political control.”
The timing of this book is impeccable. It is the guide to a major trade conflict happening before our eyes.