The soul of a new machine5/22/2023 ![]() About the size of a closet and costing up to $25,000 apiece, minicomputers are precursors to the desktop PCs that would dominate the 1990s. ![]() When the book begins in the late 1970s, Data General is one of a small group of firms fighting for a share of the burgeoning “minicomputer” industry. Meanwhile, Kidder’s characterization of computer engineers as bold and passionate visionaries transcended the era’s prevailing clichés about “tech geeks” and forever transformed the way society views the computing industry. The team’s model for success would influence countless upstarts in Silicon Valley, for better or worse. Led by a cold, demanding boss and faced with severe budget and manpower constraints, the engineers work under grueling conditions to deliver a machine that outperforms the computing products made by bigger and better-funded competitors. Tracy Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine (1981) is a nonfiction account of a team of underdog engineers who build a state-of-the-art minicomputer despite tremendous odds. ![]()
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