One of the best books about the computer field I have ever read.

Description of the technology was pretty good, so you will not be smacking yourself in the forehead saying “the writer just doesn’t get it” – he got it, or had good editors help him get it right.

Description of the environment of a huge computer project that “must get done” in an incredibly short period is pretty good.

The story starts in the late 1970s and the book came out in 1981 – I got my copy of it back then for my birthday, actually. The MV8000 computer described in the book was a major product for Data General in the 1980s.

Nevertheless, less than a decade later the company (DG) floundered – despite this life-saving great machine its engineers gave it. They don’t talk about that in the book because that happened years after the book came out. But it did happen. EMC wound up with DG and its computers are no more.

Even more ironic, the company DG’s engineering team was trying to beat (DEC) also floundered.

DEC was taken down by one of the same forces that attacked DG. That was the obsolescence of the minicomputer. That was sped up by the disappearance of terminals when PCs became inexpensive, interconnected, and powerful.

DEC wound up getting bought by PC maker Compaq in the 1990s. Then HP wound up buying Compaq. Following its acquisition of Compaq, HP began to experience some difficulties.

Anyone in the computer field should read this book. It helps bring to life the reasons why certain products are so vital to a company trying to get them out the door.

The other thing to remember is the life of most of these products is short. So they cannot afford to rest on their laurels.