Thanks for the CSM definition. I was wondering whether it was a contraction of CDMA & GSM, i.e. a hybrid chip. But it ain't that at all.
By the way, I grew up in Silicon Valley back when it was cherry, apricot and plum orchards, at the dawn of the Silicon age. Playing little league in the '70s one of our team's sponsors was this little company nobody had heard of called Intel. The rest is history. I watched it transform into Silicon Valley. A few years ago I was visiting my Dad and we took the kids on the light rail from Mtn View to downtown San Jose and it was almost like a disneyland ride for me with big shiny buildings on the left & right, past Intel, Cisco, Apple, Creative Labs, Atmel, Sun, one after another, the who's who of computers. We arrived to Jobs Way in downtown SJ, to the really cool children's museum, the Sharks arena, etc. It was revitalized, alive, buzzing. A far cry from where we'd go hang out and watch the lowriders cruise on Friday nights in downtown San Jose.
I have Inlaws in Seattle, and although didn't see the transformation first hand, I see the results of the Microsoft boom. Redmond, Bothell, Kirkland, Bellevue, Software alley. Scores of satellite software companies following in the wake of MSFT, feeding off the crumbs of the gorilla. Just like silicon valley for software.
And now I'm all growed up and have lived in San Diego for the last 20 years. When I got here Sorrento valley was a few blocks of buildings and a couple stoplights by the railroad tracks. Cut through on the way to Solana Beach. Qualcomm was a little tiny building. UCSD had open fields all around it. A lot has changed in the past 20 years, some of it "normal" progress that you don't really notice or think about day to day. But I'll tell you, when you step back and look at the big picture, it's like deja vu all over again. The transformation is happening. This town is buzzing. Bulldozers & cement trucks are a steady stream up and down I-15. Big shiny buildings. Big new houses. Property values rising. Nokia, Ericsson, AMCC, Sony, Motorola, others coming in to be near the rising gorilla Qualcomm.
Not that I'm particularly happy about losing little San Diego to "progress", but I tell you, it's happening. If you look at it day to day, or follow the stock prices day to day, you won't see it. If you weren't here the past 20 years, you don't know it. But I've seen it before and I'm seeing it happen again. The future has no wires.
I wish I bought Intel stock 30 years ago with my baseball card money.
I wish I bought Microsoft stock 20 years ago with my beer money.
Well, at least I bought some QCOM 5 years ago in my 401K. Expecting to retire early and play lots of golf... |
