The Soul of a New Machine – Book Review
This 1982 Pulitzer Prize Winner Remains as Relevant as Ever
Jun 2, 2009
The year is 1979. Data General had earned a reputation as a renegade computer company with an aggressive sales force and compelling products. Competitors told their customers to watch out for Data General, that they were bad news. But this only led to increased exposure and more interest from buyers. Their 16-bit Nova and Eclipse machines had been successful and the company was flush with cash, but there was trouble on the horizon. Digital Equipment Corporation had come out with their 32-bit "super-mini" - the VAX, and Data General didn't have anything to compete with it.
Project Eagle
Tracy Kidder, who at the time had one previous book under his belt, spent a year at Data General chronicling the efforts, conflicts, stumbles and victories of a team of hardware and software engineers that were tasked, almost begrudgingly, by a seemingly cold and uncaring management team, with creating the company's own 32-bit machine to compete with the VAX. There was a lot of money to be made, if only they could get to market before the VAX came to dominate.
Code-named "Eagle" the new machine almost never got the chance. The company had recently moved a research and development team to a new location in another state and most resources for a 32-bit machine (code-named "Fountainhead") were funneled there. However, a guy named Tom West managed to keep an independent team working on Eagle as sort of an insurance policy in case Fountainhead didn't work out. If the much better funded and staffed Fountainhead project succeeded before they did it would be a colossal waste of time and money. People would probably get fired.
The All-Consuming Machines
Two prototypes of the Eagle were built and these machines came to dominate the lives of the protagonists. There is no one central character (with the exception of perhaps West), and Kidder weaves individuals in and out of the tale as they assume important roles in the project. Most of them agreed that they weren't in it for the money (which was decent for the time), but for the challenge, and to be involved at the lowest level in creating a new computer. At one point, the engineers discovered that the hourly technicians actually made more money than they did.
One might think that this book could only appeal to a computer geek, but not so. It's an adventure as well as a techno-drama. Will they pull it off or go crazy? Will the Fountainhead team come in first and make their efforts a huge waste of time? Will the 12-18 hour days take too much of a toll on personal lives? Is there a big payoff in terms of prestige, money and stock options in the end? They are never quite sure, but they keep going. And for the true computer or engineering geek, The Soul of a New Machine is pure inspiration.
Note: This review is of the 1981 edition published by Little, Brown, and Co.
An excerpt of The Soul of a New Machine can be found at Businessweek.com
References
The Soul of a New Machine, 1981, Tracy Kidder, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, ISBN 0-316-49170-5
 |
