http://www.netvalley.com/silicon_valley/The_Birth_of_Silicon_Valley.html By: Carolym Tajnai
Silicon Valley is located in the Bay Area. Where is this? The Bay Area is in the southern part of San Francisco, California, USA. "Silicon Valley radiates outward from Stanford University -- to the adjacent cities of Palo Alto and Menlo Park; Northwest to Redwood City, and San Carlos; Southeast to Los Altos, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Campbell and San Jose; and has expanded to Alviso, Milpitas and Morgan Hill" said Carolym Tajnai. Silicon Valley was originally named for its large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers. Now Silicon Valley produces more than silicon chips, being the leading center for high-tech innovations and developments in technology. The first time that Santa Clara county was called "Silicon Valley" was in 1971 by Don Hoefler because of the "electronic firms mushrooming" in the Bay Area. The biggest advancement that was made in technology was the worlds first microprocessor: the Intel 4004, which was completed on November 15, 1971. This lead to Hoefler's dubbing it Silicon Valley. Many things have happened in Silicon Valley: for example Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniac created the first Apple computer in their garage in Silicon Valley; the World Wide Web was thought of and created here; the first iPhone was created here. Why is it so important? One reason is due to all the technological advancements made here and the great lump sum of cash that Stanford University earn from owning the property and research facilities in which much of Silicon Valley's technological advancements are made.
Digress time: did you know that Bill Gates made his first minicomputer in Albuquerque, New Mexico about the same time Steve Jobs built his computer in Silicon Valley? Super cool.