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The beginning of Silicon Valley was HP..started in a Palo Alto Garage in 1938 by 2 Stanford grads...making electronic testing equipment...their first customer was Disney..for work on the movie Fantasia..

then during WW2..

they worked on counter-radar technology and artillery shell proximity fuzes during World War II, which allowed Packard (but not Hewlett) to be exempt from the draft.[12] Hewlett served as an officer in the Army Signal Corps after being called to active duty. In 1942, they built their first building at 395 Page Mill Road and were awarded the Army-Navy "E" Award in 1943. HP's line of products during the war included the audio oscillator, a wave analyzer, distortion analyzers, an audio-signal generator, and the Model 400A vacuum-tube voltmeter, and employed 200 people. WIKI.

At the end of 1968, co-founder Packard handed over the duties of CEO to Hewlett to become United States Deputy Secretary of Defense in the incoming Nixon administration.

The WOZ of Apple Fame worked for HP...hee haw..