Mondo Knows Facts

Silicon Valley was named after the silicon semiconductor chip industry

Journalist Don Hoefler popularized the phrase in 1971 to describe the Santa Clara Valley region

Journalist Don Hoefler coined the title Silicon Valley USA in a series of articles published by Electronic News in January 1971. The name referred to the dense concentration of silicon semiconductor chip manufacturers and technology startups established in California's Santa Clara Valley. Early pioneers included Fairchild Semiconductor, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel.

Intel 4004 processor pinout
Rudiniemeijer ยท CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท licence ยท source

Where this comes from

Computer History Museum

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

More facts like this

Tags: silicon-valley, california, chips

Silicon Valley was named after the silicon semiconductor chip industry: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Journalist Don Hoefler popularized the phrase in 1971 to describe the Santa Clara Valley region. The figure is taken from Computer History Museum, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a technology fact?
Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.