Look on a map of California and you will not find Silicon Valley.

The area in northern California which is the home of some of the world's major high-tech giants grew up with this name because of the industry which started it all - the silicon chip - creating the dawn of the computer age.

William Hewlett and David Packard built their first computer in a garage in Palo Alto, often known as the capital of Silicon Valley and the rest, as they say, is history.

And it is a valley, running from San Jose in the south to San Francisco in the north (?san? being Spanish for ?saint? for those not familiar with the language).

It's also sometimes called the Bay Area, because of the proximity of the San Francisco Bay, a large estuary stretching inland.

Check out this map to give you an idea of its location.

Further Information:

• Silicon Valley News
• Silicon Valley History Online
• Silicon Valley at Citysearch
• Silicon Valley Community Newspapers