Soul of a New Machine

No cover — Tracy Kidder: Soul of a New Machine (1982, Penguin Books, Limited)

English language

Published March 17, 1982 by Penguin Books, Limited.

ISBN:: 978-0-7139-1482-5

(1 review)

"The Soul of a New Machine" is a non-fiction book written by Tracy Kidder and published in 1981. It chronicles the experiences of a computer engineering team racing to design a next-generation computer at a blistering pace under tremendous pressure. The machine was launched in 1980 as the Data General Eclipse MV/8000. The book won the 1982 National Book Award for Non-fiction and a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.

16 editions

crosswords reviewed The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder

The Soul of an (Not So) New Machine

5 stars

Tracy Kidder recounts the uber-enjoyable events of an engineering team racing to build a microcomputer, making it feel like you're the geeked intern spectating at all the engineers in wonder and delight. The personalities, the hardware, the business, the goofs and the gaffes pull you in and never really lets go. Now, forty years later, the book is old and the technology is practically archaic, however, nothing seems to have really changed.

Subjects

Electronic digital computers, design and construction