You probably know Silicon Valley as headquarters of the high-tech world. But do you know much about the industry that gave the area its name? Do you know what goes on behind tech companies’ doors? If you’re curious, you’ll find answers at the Intel Musuem.

In the early 1980s, Intel, the world’s largest silicon chip manufacturer, established a museum to record its history. Since opening to the public in 1992, it has become a popular tourist destination and educational resource.

"Many people come to the museum to get a better understanding of the technology that drives Silicon Valley," says Intel Museum marketing manager Sue Sato. "Visitors appreciate the feeling of actually being inside a famous Silicon Valley company, instead of just viewing it from the outside."

A variety of hands-on exhibits at the modernistic, multi-media museum allows visitors to experience what it’s like to work in one of Intel’s silicon chip factories, trace the origins of high-tech innovations, and see how new technologies have changed almost every aspect of our everyday lives. Designed as a self-guided experience with audio tours available in seven languages, the museum allows visitors to move at their own pace.

A long interactive timeline provides context for the impressive evolution of the silicon chip industry since Intel’s founding in 1968: from early chips storing under 1,000 bits of data to today’s chips holding millions of bits. Be sure to check out Intel’s very first microprocessor along with such other technological relics as a clunky mobile phone from 1989.

The popular Big Chip exhibit is a huge 10-square-foot illuminated model of a microprocessor. Animated voices narrate the numerous steps that occur each time a chip processes information inside a computer.

Another favorite exhibit is the Fab, which shows what it’s like inside the factories where chips are fabricated on silicon wafers. Visitors can view the long list of steps employees are required to avoid contaminating the ultra-clean fabs, and even try on their "bunny suits" and goggles. They can also perform a simulation of how Intel builds the millions of microscopic transistors packed onto each chip. And last, they can actually watch the bunny-suited pros in action via a live video transmitted from inside a real Intel fab!

In the binary code exhibit, the complex digital language computers use to represent letters and symbols is explained in an incredibly clear way. Using an eight-number sequence of zeroes and ones to represent each letter, visitors can spell out their names on an electronic reader board.

Throughout the museum, adults and children alike are encouraged to play with the high-tech devices—a welcome change from the "hands-off" policy typically taken with computers and other gadgets.

"Visitors are invited to touch the displays, solve problems, and learn by doing," Sato says. "We try to make complex ideas understandable in an entertaining way."

--by Katie Vaughn

2200 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara; 408/765-0503; www.intel.com/go/museum. Open Mon-Fri, 9-6; Sat, 10-5. Parking and admission are free.