Silicon Valley is located in the Santa Clara Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area, and before the valley became known for its association with cutting-edge technology it was famous as a fruit-growing area, known as the Valley of Heart's Delight.

However, by the 1960s, though not yet known as Silicon Valley (the first recorded public use of that name is in 1971) Santa Clara Valley was already an important centre for modern industry. Stanford University, which has always been an innovation centre, is located there. Hewlett Packard was founded in the Valley, and by the late 1950s were a big name in electronics. The silicon transistor was also developed there in the same decade, and the area was a major centre for the aerospace industry too.

So although it wasn't yet Silicon Valley, in the 1960s the valley already had most of what it needed for the technological revolution that would follow: it was a magnet for engineering and IT talent, there was already considerable wealth, and some of the key inventions and developments in the field were already in place.