Nova
Eclipse
Data General
VAX
DEC
How many of these appear familiar? Chances are they will be, if you've studied CS. Data General was a big maker of minicomputers (second only to DEC, the king) in the 80s, founded by Ed de Castro, the lead designer of PDP-8 earlier at DEC. In 1976, DEC introduced the VAX* (a 32 bit minicomputer) and DG needed to respond in quick (it's then current Eclipse line was 16 bit). This forms the background of the story so admirably told in Tracy Kidder's The soul of a new machine.
This book was a chance find on my recent visit to Odyssy. I had never heard about it before, but it appeared interesting and additionally it's a Pulitzer prize winner (1982), so decided to give it a try. The story focuses on the design and creation of DG's answer to VAX (later to be named Eclipse MV/8000) and the author was a live observer of the process. And a good observer he is! He acutely captures what actually goes on inside computer companies; the joy of creating something of value, the enthusiasm, but also the pressures and the unavoidable politics. And the apparently trivial things which later turn out to have a large impact (esp on support), things such as whether the on-off control should be a push button switch or an on-off button.
As for me, some things of which I was only subconsciously aware became apparent (which is good when dealing with them). The main personalities in the story are portrayed well, and they'll appear very familiar. The book really succeeds in capturing something of the the soul of the computing industry (at least as per what my little experience tells me). Give it a try, it's worth it!
* VAX had an OS named VMS. Dave Cutler, it's principal developer, later became the lead designer of Windows NT (the forerunner of Windows XP).
Eclipse
Data General
VAX
DEC
How many of these appear familiar? Chances are they will be, if you've studied CS. Data General was a big maker of minicomputers (second only to DEC, the king) in the 80s, founded by Ed de Castro, the lead designer of PDP-8 earlier at DEC. In 1976, DEC introduced the VAX* (a 32 bit minicomputer) and DG needed to respond in quick (it's then current Eclipse line was 16 bit). This forms the background of the story so admirably told in Tracy Kidder's The soul of a new machine.
This book was a chance find on my recent visit to Odyssy. I had never heard about it before, but it appeared interesting and additionally it's a Pulitzer prize winner (1982), so decided to give it a try. The story focuses on the design and creation of DG's answer to VAX (later to be named Eclipse MV/8000) and the author was a live observer of the process. And a good observer he is! He acutely captures what actually goes on inside computer companies; the joy of creating something of value, the enthusiasm, but also the pressures and the unavoidable politics. And the apparently trivial things which later turn out to have a large impact (esp on support), things such as whether the on-off control should be a push button switch or an on-off button.
As for me, some things of which I was only subconsciously aware became apparent (which is good when dealing with them). The main personalities in the story are portrayed well, and they'll appear very familiar. The book really succeeds in capturing something of the the soul of the computing industry (at least as per what my little experience tells me). Give it a try, it's worth it!
* VAX had an OS named VMS. Dave Cutler, it's principal developer, later became the lead designer of Windows NT (the forerunner of Windows XP).
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