Technology trends may push Silicon Valley back to the future. Carver Mead, a
pioneer in integrated circuits and a professor of computer science at the
California Institute of Technology, notes there are now work-stations that
enable engineers to design, test and produce chips right on their desks, much
the way an editor creates a newsletter on a Macintosh. As the time and cost of
making a chip drop to a few days and a few hundred dollars, engineers may soon
be free to let their imaginations soar without being penalized by expensive
failures. Mead predicts that inventors will be able to perfect powerful
customized chips over a weekend at the office - spawning a new generation of
garage start-ups and giving the U.S. a jump on its foreign rivals in getting
new products to market fast. 'We've got more garages with smart people,' Mead
observes. 'We really thrive on anarchy.'#
And on Asians. Already, orientals and Asian Americans constitute the majority
of the engineering staffs at many Valley firms. And Chinese, Korean, Filipino
and Indian engineers are graduating in droves from California's colleges. As
the heads of next-generation start-ups, these Asian innovators can draw on
customs and languages to forge tighter links with crucial Pacific Rim markets.
For instance, Alex Au, a Stanford Ph.D. from Hong Kong, has set up a Taiwan
factory to challenge Japan's near lock on the memory-chip market. India-born
N. Damodar Reddy's tiny California company reopened an AT&T chip plant in
Kansas City last spring with financing from the state of Missouri. Before it
becomes a retirement village, Silicon Valley may prove a classroom for
building a global business.&