Birthplace of the Silicon Valley

“To See a World in a Grain of Sand”

Collaboration with Mary B. White

The three tall sculptures that stride above this sidewalk location commemorate and honor the pioneering work performed by engineers of the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory at 391 San Antonio Road in the 1950s. The sculptures are artistic interpretations of two of the earliest semi-conductor devices ever produced in Silicon Valley, the N696 transistor (with three prongs), and a silicon diode (with two).

In our depiction two of the three components are plugged into a circuit board layout, producing a classic oscillating “saw-tooth” waveform. The second diode outside of the circuit board has the enclosing “can” cut away, so that viewers can see a typical representation of the inside of the diode. These early devices were manufactured with straight legs, but are depicted here slightly battered and bent, symbolic of old devices found in the historic collections.

From this location and using the concepts embodied in these solid-state components, the companies and technologies that make up the modern Silicon Valley were born.

We’d like to offer our immense appreciation to the engineering community affiliated with the nearby Computer History Museum and especially to two of the engineer/scientists who worked at this historic location, Jacques Beaudouin and Andris Ramans. Their contributions to these artworks have been invaluable.