Silicon Valley

"A place where silicon is mostly found?

"A place in Malaysia?"
As I discussed about the uses of semi-metal in the microelectronic industries, I asked my students where is Silicon Valley. Above are some examples of responses I get.
Ha ha.. Silicon Valley is at the sounthern part of San Francisco, US. It originally referred to the large number of silicon chip innovators, semi-conductors and computer industries in this area. However, now it refers to the region where most of the leading ICT-based company reside. Companies like Microsoft, HP, Apple, Intel, eBay, Yahoo, Google are headquartered here.
Can we imagine, what would happen to our world without silicon? A world without handphone, ipod, mp3, computer, etc.. out of imagination... My students get stunned when the ideas sank into their deep heart...

Stanford University and its graduates play an important roles towards the development of this area.


Picture taken at Stanford Universtity, San Francisco during my visit during Christmas year 2003.