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The Silicon Genesis Project is an on-going oral history project on the history of Silicon Valley and the semiconductor industry, conducted by volunteers and housed at the Stanford University Library.

History

The Silicon Genesis project was started and built upon the inspiration of Rob Walker (1935-2016). Rob was a Silicon Valley native and Silicon Valley educated electrical engineer, who was involved with the semiconductor industry since the 1960s at Fairchild, Intel and as a founder of LSI Logic. He understood that if the stories of these pioneers were not captured for the benefit of future public access, they would be untold and lost forever. In 1995, Rob began a project with the Silicon Valley Archives in the Stanford University Libraries to record oral history interviews focused on the history of the semiconductor industry. The resulting video recordings and interview transcripts form the basis for the Silicon Genesis collection at Stanford, and available for researchers and others with an interest in this history.

Role of Stanford University

The Silicon Valley Archives in the Stanford Libraries provides access to several collections related to the Silicon Genesis oral histories. These include the Rob Walker Papers, the Silicon Destiny collection of oral history cassette tapes, videos, and transcripts assembled for Rob Walker's book Silicon Destiny, and the Silicon Genesis collection, which includes physical media for many of the interviews in the series featured in the exhibit.

The collection of interviews

Interviews

Subjects to be interviewed have been chosen based on their historic contributions to the semiconductor and related industries. Persons conducting the interviews are former executives of semiconductor companies and have expertise in the fields being discussed. These individuals have volunteered their time to identify persons of historic interest, scheduled and conducted interviews, assist with post-production, and review transcripts. Once posted, interviews are available as both streaming video files and lightly edited transcripts.

Interview format

Prior to 2020, most interviews were typically conducted one-on-one in an informal and comfortable setting, often the home of the interviewee. More recent interviews have been conducted on the Stanford campus, often the Green Library. Interviews start with a bit of family and personal history, educational background, and then dive a range of relevant topics relating to the subject's historical contributions to the semiconductor or related industry.

Individual interviews

Group interviews

Panel and special interest videos

Highlighted collections

The Stanford Library highlights individual interviews that are grouped together according to an area of interest. As of summer 2023, there were three featured collections: SEMI Interviews which bring the contributors of SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International) into focus, Fairchild Semiconductor History, and Silicon Genesis Europe.

References

1. University, © Stanford; Stanford; California 94305. "Silicon Genesis". Spotlight at Stanford. Retrieved 2023-06-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
2. "Transistorized! Web Site References". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
3. "ASIC Pioneer, Tech Historian Rob Walker Dies". EE Times. 2016-04-11. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
4. "Silicon Valley Archives". library.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
5. Cassel, David (2019-05-05). "Silicon Genesis: Stanford's Oral Histories of the Semiconductor Industry". The New Stack. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
6. "Silicon Genesis oral history interviews". oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
7. Walker, Rob (1992). Silicon Destiny: The Story of Application Specific Integrated Circuits and LSI Logic Corporation. Walker Research Associates. ISBN 978-0-9632654-0-1.
8. "Silicon genesis : oral history interviews of Silicon Valley scientists, 1995-2010". researchworks.oclc.org. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
9. "EAB Profiles - School of Engineering - Santa Clara University". www.scu.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
10. Martin, Douglas (2008-08-16). "C. Lester Hogan, Physicist Who Fought Motorola, Dies at 88". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
11. Noble, Holcomb B.; Hafner, Katie (2023-03-25). "Gordon E. Moore, Intel Co-Founder Behind Moore's Law, Dies at 94". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
12. Markoff, John (2004-06-19). "Bernard Vonderschmitt, 80, Semiconductor Designer, Dies (Published 2004)". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
13. "Stephen J. Zelencik". College of Engineering - Purdue University. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
14. "Fairchild, the Fairchild chronicles | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
15. Cassidy, Mike (2005-03-07). "Silicon Valley view: Film on firm that started digital world". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2023-10-08.

This article needs additional or more specific categories. Please help out by adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles. (November 2023)

• Oral history
• Biographies about businesspeople
• Semiconductor companies
• Fairchild Corporation
• Intel
• Texas Instruments
• Motorola
• AMD
• AMD people
• People in technology