391 San Antonio Rd.-A Semiconductor Documentary

Silicon Valley is known worldwide as the global center of high tech innovation. In large part, the spark that ignited Silicon Valley's explosive growth can be traced back to a 50 year-old dispute that occurred in the building at 391 San Antonio Road, Mountain View, California.
In the 1950s William Shockley was considered a "God" in the electronics world. He led the Bell Labs team that invented the transistor in 1948. With funding from Arnold Beckman -- a wealthy scientist-businessman -- Shockley established the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in 1955. Shockley went against Beckman's recommendation to set up in southern California, near Beckman's own company, and established the lab in a former Quonset hut at 391 San Antonio.
Shockley's disruptive management style eventually forced eight of his young scientists to approach Arnold Beckman directly in an attempt to remove Shockley from day-to-day management. When their bid fails, the group feels they have burned their bridges and must find alternative employment. Through an East Coast banker, the scientists are introduced to Sherman Fairchild, a New York industrialist. He is intrigued by the potential of silicon transistors and agrees to support the group with an investment of $1.3 million to start a new company called Fairchild Semiconductor.
In Silicon Valley lore, the dissenting scientists became known as the Traitorous Eight - some of whom went on to bigger and better things. Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore founded Intel in 1968, now the world's largest chipmaker. More than 400 electronics, computer and chip companies in Silicon Valley can trace their genealogy back to the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory at 391 San Antonio Road.
Through interviews with historians and surviving former employees of Shockley Labs, filmmaker Craig Addison recounts the events that indirectly led to the explosive growth of Silicon Valley. The Computer History Museum thanks Craig Addison for making this film available.
Catalog number: 102792098
Lot Number: X5262.2009

[@daviddiffenderfer3836]

I was so privileged to have worked with these geniuses of the electronic age from 1956 to 1961.

[@Doggeslife]

That is quite a feather in one's cap. I wasn't born until 1960.

[@petrofilmeurope]

Congratulations, that must have been really very exciting. I came in a bit later, in 1971, worked for IBM just when the word processing started. Magnetic tape, magnetic card, the IBM Selectric, IBM Composer. I was on the sales side here in Oslo, Norway. Thanks.

[@aaronvaldes3104]

That's awesome. You must have interesting anecdotes.

[@larrygall5831]

The cradle of solid state electronics.

[@anchorbait6662]

Show off

[@armanajootty924]

Oh god, what a wonder this life all about. Today I'm watching this documentary on my mobile phone which hold thousands of transistors in it!

[@DerWieselmann]

it probably has billions of transistors in it

[@liberty-matrix]

In 2016, I was sadden to see that the city of Mountain View allowed this historic building to be demolished. Just to build a shopping center. The single most historic building for the start of Silicon Valley. Now gone forever.

[@yellowmellow294]

You are right. All the old sites from the beginning of Silicon Valley are all gone now.You know the old saying " where they burn books they soon will be burning people" It kinda fits here.

[@bogdog999]

That was messed up. I use to live 1 block from there. My earliest memories were from the 1970s when Pacific Stereo used the building. I still have a Concept 11.0 receiver that was purchased there.

[@Texaca]

@@bogdog999 ...that has to be a museum piece 🤔 I've never heard of that brand.

[@peacefulruler1]

The original Shockley labs was a Quonset hut I believe.

[@madamerotten]

I have a few of those type 4E20D Shockley 4 layer diodes in my collection of old semiconductors.

[@cryptopunk888]

It’s pretty amazing. The building at 391 San Antonio Rd is no longer there. It’s torn down and replaced with an Icon Theater but they have signs posted there that it was the birthplace of Silicon Valley. Pretty amazing that the transistor started there that enable all the tech today.

[@Texaca]

...there should be a National Historical plaque there 🤔 ..the State of Texas has hundreds of plaques and land markers in the State, we call them "Hysterical markers," most are plaques for very obscure historical events in Texas history, unlike the Alamo site.

[@cjay2]

Typical SV that they didn't leave it up. Money rules there.

[@stonystarkindustries]

im pretty sure the icon was on the other side of the little road between pachetti and san antonio, if i remember it was catty corner to 391 across that little road thing, and was on california . 391 is on san antonio, and is across that little road from bens pets, pretty sure its been a commercial space and i think mixed residential too, but not sure . but the 391 sign is huge now like 5 feet tall if i remember correctly and with a big placard, but if i remember correctly the site of the store was never the same as the icon, i lived in palo alto durin the week from 2017 til covid (when i didnt have to go in to work so i went bacc to oakland for a few months then heard my friends about how empty santa cruz was so i moved bacc there to experience the once in a life opportunity of bein able to get anywhere in santa cruz at anytime without a 4 hr delay on the 1 or the 17 hahaha, stayed til covid ended and ended up takin a job at northrup down here in palmdale, and man, its much cheaper much better oay and i get ro work on airplanes, but god, i went to high school in palmdale for my last couple years, and guess i forgot how....sad....it is lol really wanna move bacc once the good-payin tech jobs picc bacc up n the bay) and anyways, i remember it opened like 2019 i think, pretty sure that where i saw bohemin rhapsody . nice theatre, reminded me of that one in san francisco, the alehouse or the drafthouse or whatever its called, with the big chairs and super modern display and sound, it was great. cant remember if they sold beer and wine at the time tho, isnt really my thing anyways

[@stonystarkindustries]

but lived in bay area on and off from 2009 to 2022 and most of it was in oakland and santa cruz, but that 3 years in palo alto and menlo park was great . everything so quiet and green and clean, its like living in black mirror.

[@sdddlt]

Awesome documentary! I read Crystal Fire during my first year at university and really enjoyed all the historical facts and details.

[@jessfortes9529]

I was inspired from where its started from this people who made it happen. It was 1982 from the time I graduate I landed to the semiconductor company which give me a new friends and technology from all walk of life. Thanks.....

[@coldfusion1111]

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly" ~R. Buckminster Fuller

[@kellingtonlink956]

Incredibly well done. Thanks for the video.

[@SaltyPilgrim]

Tube Amps are still a hot item in the string instrument world!

[@DailyMotivation375-v9t]

Can someone provide link of background music?

[@PlasmaCoolantLeak]

Drove by that building many times.

[@petrofilmeurope]

Excellent

[@dwildhirt]

I used to shop there when it was the Pacific Stereo store in the 1970s. Had no idea of its historic significance.

[@Doggeslife]

Pacific Stereo was awesome. It became Stereo Habitat for a bit after PS closed, then a produce market after that for some years. Sadly, the building is no more today...Bastards knocked it down to build a hi-rise office building rather than preserve history.

[@thecaptainb1]

Working Sr. engineering my Fairchild days 1971-1978. Those were some days in our 10,000 employees company.

[@steveconyers4173]

9 years is a long time since you made the above comment, but I had to reach out. Doubt you knew him, but my Dad was a production control manager at both the Mountain View and Bernal Road plants throughout the 1970's and early 80's. He had a friend that worked there named Larry. Larry was at least 6'4". Ring any Bells?

[@thecaptainb1]

@@steveconyers4173 I do recall the name, for sure just don't recall any memories of him. Thanks for asking.

[@steveconyers4173]

@@thecaptainb1 Forgot to mention my dad's name, Fred Conyers. I remember being a kid and wanting so badly to see inside the Bernal Rd Plant (so mysterious due to its lack of windows. Dad said it's not gonna happen, which made me want to see inside even more! Thanks for getting back to me.

[@steveconyers4173]

When I mentioned you to Dad he said, "If he worked at the "Rusty Bucket" I'm sure I knew him.

[@srjcdistanceeducation1799]

We want to use this video for a college course in Computer Studies at Santa Rosa Junior College. Would you please grant us permission to caption the video so it has punctuation and clear sentences? If you turn on Community Contributions in KZbin, we could add the better captions to these videos. Alternatively, we can send you a corrected caption file that you can upload in KZbin. One more option is to use a site such as Amara.org that will embed the video and give us an interface to overlay the video with the better caption file. All of these options leave the control in your hands. If you take down the video, it will no longer appear in the course, we will just be embedding from KZbin, not downloading the video.

[@softsignals]

Great documentary, thanks for posting.

[@LRA_Electronica]

Thanks for posting. From Argentina.

[@divyangvaidya1999]

If Shockley treated the traitorous eight correctly he could've been part of the revolution of Fairchild Semiconductor.

[@himanshuful]

AT&T Bell has a history of innovations. You name the thing & it will be linked with Bell

[@keatonforrest93]

Same with Xerox PARC. People forget Object-Oriented Programming came out of there.

[@Texaca]

.. Bell Labs isn't even owned by AT&T anymore.

[@gkprivate433]

Reminds me of the movie The Caine Mutiny. Humphrey Bogart gets paranoid and goes a bit nuts, accusing people of things

[@adsarode]

Thanks for posting

[@zetaconvex1987]

Fascinating.

[@zico739]

Brilliant men.

[@AlbertInSanAntonio]

Great Documentary , !

[@narosushi]

the only problem with this video is tooooo short!

[@AbrahamLopezSJ]

i love it! grew my knowledge of the the awesome silicon valley!

[@Ayo22210]

National treasure

[@superatama]

Fantastic !

[@greenpedal370]

To suggest Silicon Valley "created" wireless communication is incorrect and quite preposterous.

[@saskiavanhoutert6081]

I learned at my education that in 1957, the mainframes are made, is that correctly ?

[@trisetyadarmawan902]

Thanks :)

[@Marcelotecnologia1]

Muito bom... 👏👏👏👏👏

[@saltech2024]

Fairchild Semiconductor made profitable sales than Bell Lab

[@paulj0557tonehead]

Jazz guitarist Emily Remler (d. May 4,1990) was born on that day of September 18 1957. Silicone Valley was responsible for the death of the electronic organ in a sense, discrete transistors were the last technology that thrived in an organ design. When the integrated circuit arrived it produced a lot of garbage sounding organs, although some were nice sounding if they used a boatload of filtering (ie. Gulbransen Rialto II,Hammond Elegante,Thomas Trianon, Wurlitzer 950) and loud amplification:)

[@bimini1216]

the problem is americans always let go of their technology to asia. with all the technology they make why not technology to protect it?

[@georgen9755]

hard well

[@charles-y2z6c]

In 1947 UFO crashes in Roswell NM, a year later the transistor is discovered ? Or Invented?

[@goosecouple]

Moral of the story is...

[@stonystarkindustries]

*formerly the worlds bigges chipmaker

[@s_u_n_j_a_y]

🤣

[@bestSVMS]

what abount amd

[@Doggeslife]

(Edited quote) "Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) was formally incorporated on May 1, 1969, by Jerry Sanders and seven others from Fairchild. Sanders had grown frustrated with the increasing lack of support, opportunity, and flexibility within that company, and decided to leave to start his own company."

[@georgen9755]

never forgiven??? especially in Frankfurt

[@lukealadeen7836]

What happened?

[@steventruongdotcom]

@jaimemgn I only did it because you posted this comment. Turns out I live two blocks from there LOL

[@glenndacho]

Shockley piggy backed on alien technology

[@monopalle5768]

Not enough diversity. You will need to invest in a new movie before they call you out on this..... Now you have been warned, in writing, so non-compliance on your part will be seen as intentional racism.

[@greenpedal370]

The biggest racists are those that constantly cry racism.

[@robertadams5479]

But, that is the history.

[@monopalle5768]

@@robertadams5479 I know man, I'm just playing... But really you know that's the narrative these days.

[@malvinderkaur541]

wisdome intelligence and humor most winning combination wasn't there little clips of "shockley dacshunds playing hockey in blue outfits and helmets:)

[@ertelefonoviejo4679]

buen vídeo, dislike

[@ronniedelahoussayechauvin6717]

Corruption & Marketing Software Fraud Enterprise, HORRIBLE ACTS

[@skysharksingh]

Interesting people almost the forefathers of technocracy

[@mickgatz214]

Great Doc. Thanks. ;)