The Soul of a New Machine

The Soul of a New Machine is a non-fiction book, written by Tracy Kidder. It was published in 1981 and won a Pulitzer Prize and an American Book Award. It chronicles the true story of a computer design team racing to complete a next generation computer design under a blistering schedule and tremendous pressure. The book opens with a turf war between two computer design groups within Data General Corporation, a minicomputer vendor in the 1970s. Mo... more

The Soul of a New Machine is a non-fiction book, written by Tracy Kidder. It was published in 1981 and won a Pulitzer Prize and an American Book Award. It chronicles the true story of a computer design team racing to complete a next generation computer design under a blistering schedule and tremendous pressure. The book opens with a turf war between two computer design groups within Data General Corporation, a minicomputer vendor in the 1970s. Most of the senior designers are assigned the "sexy" job of designing the next generation machine, which will be done in North Carolina. Their project (code-named "Fountainhead") is to give Data General a machine to compete with the new VAX computer from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which is starting to take over the new 32-bit minicomputer market. The few senior designers who are left in corporate headquarters at Westborough, MA are given the much more humble job of designing enhancements for the existing product lines. Tom West, the... less