I recently read "Crystal Fire", http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Fire-Birth-Information-Technology/dp/0393041247 http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Fire-Birth-Informati

I recently read "Crystal Fire", http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Fire-Birth-Information-Technology/dp/0393041247 http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Fire-Birth-Information-Technol..., an account of the invention an commercialization of the transistor. Prominent in the book are Shockley and how the companies that spun off from his original start up founded the semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley.