The transistor turns 60

Here's the early history of Silicon Valley in a nutshell. In this photo from 1956, the guy sitting down at the end of the table in the patterned, open-collared shirt is William Shockley.

Encouraged by Stanford provost Fred Terman to come to California, Shockley started Shockley Semiconductor in the Bay Area and recruited some of the top engineers in the field. The employees included the man standing in the middle of the row with the big smile and the martini glass: Robert Noyce, who went on to found Intel.

Although a recognised scientist and Nobel Prize winner, Shockley alienated his employees. Noyce, Gordon Moore, Eugene Kleiner and five other employees one day bolted to Fairchild Semiconductor. The individuals that comprised the so-called "traitorous eight" ultimately went on to found Intel, Kleiner Perkins, job hopping and venture capital. (Arthur Rock's investment in the traitorous eight is considered the birth of the venture capital industry.)

Credit: Courtesy of Intel