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Tracy Kidder

The Soul of a New Machine Hardcover – 1 July 1981

by Tracy Kidder (Author)

4.5 1,339 ratings

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Offers a behind the scenes look at the high technology computer industry, observing a crash program to develop a highly complicated machine and the people involved in this competitive business

Language

English
Publisher

Little Brown & Co
Publication date

1 July 1981
ISBN-10

0316491705
ISBN-13

978-0316491709
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little Brown & Co; First Edition (1 July 1981)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316491705
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316491709

Best Sellers Rank: 1,117,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 2,654 in Popular Maths
- 34,687 in Engineering & Technology

Customer reviews:
4.5 1,339 ratings

About the authors

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Tracy Kidder
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Tracy Kidder graduated from Harvard and studied at the University of Iowa. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, and many other literary prizes. The author of Mountains Beyond Mountains, My Detachment, Home Town, Old Friends, Among Schoolchildren, House, and The Soul of a New Machine, Kidder lives in Massachusetts and Maine.
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Tracy Kidder
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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

1,339 global ratings

5 star		63%
4 star		27%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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dharmOS

Stunning account of early computer design

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 June 2013

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I read this book based on the mention in Shippy and Phipps' book about the PPC CPU in the Xbox 360 and PS3 (The Race for a New Game Machine). It is obvious where this later book takes its inspiration (it is laid out in a similar manner). However the original is the best.

This book is an account by Kidder, a non-techie journalist, of building a 4.5 MHz 32-bit computer, The Eagle, in the late 70s from discrete logic gates and before the advent of modern CPUs (like the Motorola 68000, Intel 8086).

The work to build such a computer is chronicled wonderfully, like a mission to the moon or deep below the sea. It starts with the project manager (Tom West), then his deputies and drills down to the juniors who designed the ALU, cache (each occupied a separate logic board in the day) etc (all from discrete logic gates!) and the team who wrote the microcode.

It tells the story from a non-technical viewpoint although you can recognise the design characteristics in a modern cpu. It is part historical account, part management lesson, part how to motivate the troops. It still stands up to being read 30 years after it was written about a now-long dead computer!

Buy it and enjoy the read.

p.s. It inspired me to install Colossal Cave Adventure which they used to debug The Eagle on my Raspberry Pi.

3 people found this helpful

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C. Neale

Insider's view of a 32bit machine's creation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2020

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This took me a while to get through. There are some sections which go into quite deep technical depth about how a particular chip worked. Whilst that might have been ok once to illustrate the complexity it seemed to be repeated.
But by the end it did feel very much like the journey, albeit shorter and just about this one machine, in the TV series Halt and Catch Fire. Pioneers, doing groundbreaking things, with no vast reference library and quite often inventing their own wheels, or making wheels out of wire.

I'd recommend it for anyone interested in feeling like you were in the team working to get their 32bit machine out of the door and working long hours to achieve it.

4 people found this helpful

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AlexK

Easy, cheap, interesting and still relevant.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 January 2015

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This is a very interesting read even in 2015. Kidders fly on the wall approach ensures he got a deep insight into not only the day to day operations at Data General but also the emotional turmoil and joy that came along with the build. I read this book as part of the curriculum in a Systems Development course tailored for business students. Being only 22 I had never understood the complexity of systems and the development lifecycle. While you may think it is outdated in technology, I would still say there are lessons to be learned in team building and structure of an organisation.

In terms of language and jargon the book is an easy read. Kidder uses an almost fictional tone at times and the books tempo reads almost like a story as well. I never thought I would feel emotionally attached to a group of computer engineers before reading this!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 March 2012

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As one of the other reviewers commented, this book really is timeless.

I was given a copy when I started in the IT industry in the early 90s, fresh out of University. The events described by the author at Data General were then only about a decade old and although I enjoyed the book, I couldn't really relate to most of the people as I hadn't met their equivalents yet!

However, with 20 years of software development and management under my belt, I have now had the pleasure of working with the Ed de Castros, the Tom Wests, plus many of the "Hardy Boys" and "Microkids".

Reading the book again, I noted that the efforts, achievements and tantrums are as integral to large scale software development products today as they were over thirty years ago when West's team were developing Project Eagle.

One person found this helpful

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R N McConnachie

Nostalgia, Exciting and Well Written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 January 2018

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This is a really old book but I still found it fascinating.
I used to work in computer manufacturing in the 1980's and a lot of this resonated with me, although not on the same scale.
The book was well researched and well written.
It might have a relatively narrow readership but if it is in your field of interest you should enjoy it.

4 people found this helpful

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Simon Polito

A really good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 November 2015

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This is an excellent first novel. It intertwines two stories, one from WW2 and the other from today. The author has a very nice turn of phrase and is clearly a good story teller. It is well worth the read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2019

Verified Purchase

I read this book when it came out, many years ago, and enjoyed it enormously. I found it just as hard to put down this time, and recommend it to anyone with an interest in the development of computers or the management of very bright people.

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P. O'sullivan

A must read for the modern developer

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 February 2020

Verified Purchase

endearing, entertaining, familiar and informative.

The parallels between the story in this book and modern cloud system development are striking and provide some great food for thought

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Follow the Authors

The Soul of a New Machine Hardcover – 1 July 1981

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About the authors

Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder

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