The Soul of a New Machine (Modern Library)
Type
Book
Authors
ISBN 10
0679602615
ISBN 13
9780679602613
Category
600-629 Engineering & Medical Sciences
[ Browse Items ]
Publication Year
1997
Publisher
Pages
416
Subject
Data General Corporation. Electronic digital computers -- Design and construction -- History. Computers -- History.
Tags
Abstract
Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder memorably recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one companyʹs efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations.
Description
Publisher Comments
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, The Soul of a New Machine was a bestseller on its first publication in 1981. With the touch of an expert thriller writer, Tracy Kidder recounts the feverish efforts of a team of Data General researchers to create a new 32-bit superminicomputer. A compelling account of individual sacrifice and human ingenuity, The Soul of a New Machine endures as the classic chronicle of the computer age and the masterminds behind its technological advances.
"A superb book," said Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. "All the incredible complexity and chaos and exploitation and loneliness and strange, half-mad beauty of this field are honestly and correctly drawn." The Washington Post Book World said, "Kidder has created compelling entertainment. He offers a fast, painless, enjoyable means to an initial understanding of computers, allowing us to understand the complexity of machines we could only marvel at before, and to appreciate the skills of the people who create them."
The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editions of important works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torch-bearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.
Tracy Kidder has written a new Introduction to this Modern Library edition.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, The Soul of a New Machine was a bestseller on its first publication in 1981. With the touch of an expert thriller writer, Tracy Kidder recounts the feverish efforts of a team of Data General researchers to create a new 32-bit superminicomputer. A compelling account of individual sacrifice and human ingenuity, The Soul of a New Machine endures as the classic chronicle of the computer age and the masterminds behind its technological advances.
"A superb book," said Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. "All the incredible complexity and chaos and exploitation and loneliness and strange, half-mad beauty of this field are honestly and correctly drawn." The Washington Post Book World said, "Kidder has created compelling entertainment. He offers a fast, painless, enjoyable means to an initial understanding of computers, allowing us to understand the complexity of machines we could only marvel at before, and to appreciate the skills of the people who create them."
The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editions of important works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torch-bearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.
Tracy Kidder has written a new Introduction to this Modern Library edition.
Biblio Notes
Genre/Form: History
Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Kidder, Tracy.
Soul of a new machine.
New York : Modern Library, 1997
(OCoLC)720445560
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Tracy Kidder
ISBN: 0679602615 9780679602613
OCLC Number: 36112109
Notes: Series statement from book jacket.
"Originally published in 1981 by Little Brown and Company"--Title page verso.
Awards: Winner of Pulitzer Prize General Non-Fiction Category 1982
Description: xii, 384 pages ; 20 cm.
Contents: Good man in a storm ---
How to make a lot of money ---
Wars ---
Building a team ---
Wallach's golden moment ---
Midnight programmer ---
Flying upside down ---
La machine ---
Wonderful micromachines ---
Workshop ---
Case of the missing NAND gate ---
Shorter than a season ---
Pinball --
Going to the fair ---
Last crunch ---
Canards ---
Dinosaurs.
Series Title: Modern library of the world's best books.
Responsibility: Tracy Kidder.
Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Kidder, Tracy.
Soul of a new machine.
New York : Modern Library, 1997
(OCoLC)720445560
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Tracy Kidder
ISBN: 0679602615 9780679602613
OCLC Number: 36112109
Notes: Series statement from book jacket.
"Originally published in 1981 by Little Brown and Company"--Title page verso.
Awards: Winner of Pulitzer Prize General Non-Fiction Category 1982
Description: xii, 384 pages ; 20 cm.
Contents: Good man in a storm ---
How to make a lot of money ---
Wars ---
Building a team ---
Wallach's golden moment ---
Midnight programmer ---
Flying upside down ---
La machine ---
Wonderful micromachines ---
Workshop ---
Case of the missing NAND gate ---
Shorter than a season ---
Pinball --
Going to the fair ---
Last crunch ---
Canards ---
Dinosaurs.
Series Title: Modern library of the world's best books.
Responsibility: Tracy Kidder.
Number of Copies
1
