The Conquest of the Microchip - Tapa dura

Queisser's book is science and technology writing at its best. -- Mark J. Estren "High Technology Review" At once I fell under his literary spell...With wit and understanding, Queisser takes his readers through the tumultuous past decade, introducing the personalities and their scientific achievements that have marked this technological revolution...[An] excellent book. The special charm and uniqueness of Queisser's saga is that it is written by an insider, a distinguished scientist who left Germany in 1959 to work in Silicon Valley for William Shockley, the first great and controversial champion of semiconductors...It is a shout of joy for the great adventure of science. -- John Barker "Times Higher Education Supplement" Hans Queisser, physicist, joined Nobel Prize-winner William Shockley in 1959 in an old barn amid fruit orchards in Mountain View, California, to begin a new technology. The area is now the seat of an industrial empire--Silicon Valley. Today a professor looking back, Queisser presents an insider's view of the microchip revolution that has forever changed world technology and rightly emphasizes that whoever can better manipulate the atoms in crystals can control modern technology.

Hans Queisser tells the exciting story behind the birth of a new industry and a new knowledge that has resulted not only in a restructuring of science, technology, and industry but also in major rearrangements of political and economic power. Queisser observed at first hand the hectic growth, the triumphs and defeats, during the early days of this new era. His fascinating book provides a unique perspective that readers--even those without technical knowledge--will find extraordinarily informative.