Micropost #2

The Soul of a New Machine is written in a way I have never seen. Usually, non-fiction books seem to focus on only narration or information, while only briefly touching on one another. This book, however, blends the two perfectly, describing the details of Data General's advances, such as with their NOVA CPU to even logic analyzers, down to specific tick times in nanoseconds. These technical details may seem to be boring to the reader, and I felt the same way at times, but it was integrated perfectly to highlight the importance of these specs in relation to Data General and the pressures West's team faced there. In competition with DEC's VAX 32-bit minicomputer, West and his team attempt to design a new and better computer. He spends all his free time on this project, stating, "It just gets so scary I can’t even talk about it. I may have to take Rasala into the lab and work on that thing myself twelve hours a day" (152). I am interested to see who comes out on top at the end: DEC or Data General.