History of the Silicon Valley

Q: What Silicon Valley computer company developed its new product under this rebel pirate flag?
A. With little or no traditional management, and with loads of money to spend, a renegade group at Apple Computer developed the Macintosh in a separate Apple building that flew the pirate flag. The $600 computer (that was supposed to sell at K-Mart) ended up needing to be priced so high that, only two months before it was introduced, Steve Jobs decided that the Mac had to be a business computer to justify the price. And so it was.

Q: What well known Silicon Valley mogul began with humble origins in southside Chicago?
A. Jerry Sanders, founder of Advanced Micro Devices, grew up in southside Chicago as the son of a traffic-light repairman. By the time he was 50 years old, Sanders had two Rolls Royces, a mansion in Bel Air, a beach house in Malibu, and had founded one of the most powerful semiconductor companies in the world.

Q: In 1984, what major Silicon Valley company was founded by a husband and wife team from Stanford University?
A. Cisco Systems. Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner, then engaged, developed a technology to link Stanford computers so that they could communicate between their departments. In 1984, they began working in their Atherton home to found Cisco Systems. Today, Cisco Systems is a leading supplier of internetworking solutions with annual revenues of over $2 billion.

Q: What truce came about in Silicon Valley after a major debate about who the true creator of the microprocessor was at Intel Corporation?
A. In the late 1980s, Frederico Faggin's wife, Elvia, made it a personal crusade to set the record straight about Intel's creation of the microprocessor. This caused wide-spread debate and ultimately, an almost truce. Historians usually credit the invention of Intel's first microprocessor to three people: Intel's Ted Hoff, a young Ph.D. hired away from Stanford; Frederico Faggin, the inventor of silicon gate MOS at Fairchild; and Stan Mazor.

Q: How did Nolan Bushnell entertain his conservative customers when they came to visit Atari in Silicon Valley?
A. When Atari's customers came to visit the company, they were casually greeted with rock music and pot smoke. Nolan Bushnell, Atari's founder, gave the visitors a tour by sitting them in cardboard boxes and literally running them through the production line.

Q: What company in Silicon Valley is famous for its April Fool's Day pranks?
A. Sun Microsystems. It is a longstanding tradition to play pranks on the founders and other executives at Sun on April Fool's Day. Here are some highlights of office pranks in previous years:

In 1985, Eric Schmidt's office was moved outside.
In 1986, a Volkswagen Bug was assembled inside Eric Schmidt's office.
In 1987, Bill Joy's Ferrari was placed on a pedestal in the pond behind the Sun Microsystems building.
In 1988, Scott McNealy's office was turned into a golf course.
In 1989, as a pun for getting all of the bugs out of Sun's products, one of the buildings was covered with plastic and fumigated. Outside was a huge sign pointing to the building, which read: "NO BUGS."
In 1990, Scott McNealy's window was replaced with plexiglas, with a giant arrow extending through it.
In 1991, Sun's SPARCstation was set in a shark tank at the Steinhart Aquarium, and Wayne Rosing went to work on his "SHARKstation" in SCUBA gear.
In 1992, the SPARCs played the Sharks in an actual hockey game.
In 1993, Andy Bechtolsheim's Porsche was placed in his office with a small, live shark swimming in a tank on top. A SPARCstation was also in the tank, running one of Sun's 3D demo programs which showed a fish tank.
In 1994, Scott McNealy's office was turned into a daycare center.

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