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1-Page Summary of The Soul Of A New Machine
Overview
In the late 1970s, there was a lot of money to be made in the minicomputer industry. The author, Tracy Kidder got the chance to follow a team of engineers as they attempted to build a next-generation computer, even when the very company they worked for was reluctant to even let them try. Soul of a New Machine explains how Tom West managed his team by giving them freedom and making sure that they were always motivated on working nights and weekends for no extra pay, all because they felt that it would be exciting to see their new product hit the market.
This article also explains the intricacies of designing and debugging such a machine, where you have to control the flow of electric current through thousands of chips in timeframes of a couple hundred-billionths of a second.
Big Idea #1: Data General was a fast-growing, no-frills computer company under pressure to design a new kind of minicomputer.
In the late 1970s, a few companies were competing with one another to sell minicomputers. The biggest player was DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), who had about 85% of the market share. One company in particular that was known for its competitive and stingy ways was Data General, which sold minicomputers as well.
From the beginning, Data General was solely focused on profits. Although it had a bland building for its headquarters, there was little extravagance.
The company had a bad reputation in the industry, and even its competitors tried to warn customers about them. People said that Data General burned down one of their competitor’s factories.
Data General was a successful company that generated 20% profits every year and had revenue of $508 million.
A new kind of computer called a supermini was being developed by DEC. Data General wanted to develop an answer to the VAX 11/780 machine, so they started working on it.
Tom West, an engineering Vice President at Data General, bought a VAX machine. He analyzed it and decided that he could make improvements to the design.
Big Idea #2: Two separate teams began work on a competitor to the VAX: one flush with resources, the other unofficial and on the cheap.
To pursue the development of a new computer, Data General built a research and development center in North Carolina. The department had many engineers who were supposed to work on the team that was building the new machine. Meanwhile, Tom West was left in charge of a group in “boring old” Westborough where they were supposed to just churn out older computers such as the Eclipse and Nova. These computers were important for their bottom line but not very exciting since they weren’t working on anything completely new or innovative like FHP (Fountainhead Project) which was creating something completely different than what they’d done before.
Therefore, West’s team decided to build a competitor to FHP (Ford Motor Company) and created the Eagle. However, De Castro was reluctant about it but let them proceed with caution. Everyone pretended that their project didn’t exist because they were already working on FHP. The team worked in the basement of Westborough and had no air conditioning during summertime when everyone else had it so they couldn’t work there for long periods of time without getting heat stroke or other serious health problems.
Tom West, the Eagle’s designer, told his employees that they were going to be successful with their new product. However, he kept quiet about it around others in the company so that they would not feel threatened by its success.
