Could have been so much better I bought this book because it reminded me of a book I loved called "The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder. RFANGM actually cites this book as an inspiration. But they are very different.
The problem with this book is that Shippy seems to not know which audience he is writing to. At one point he's writing to MBA candidates about management techniques. At another point he's writing to the the average computer beginner. Lastly he ever slightly tries to appeal to the geeky computer/electrical/software engineer type like me that I feel should be his target audience (since that was the audience in Kidders book).
But, he kept teasing me with tiny technical tidbits enough to keep reading past the boring management stories and explanations of simple things like what a game machine is. But I ended up just giving up about 1/2 way thorough the book because it just wasn't worth my time.
He was an insider and could have told a really cool story about chip design in the 21st century but instead he bored me to tears.. Bummer.
Disappointing! "The Race for a New Game Machine" was mainly a tale of lunches and other minor details. It failed to provide either a useful business or engineering overview for readers interested in those perspectives. It did, however, reveal both an appalling lack of business ethics within IBM and very poor human resource management.
The project began in 2001 as a partnership between IBM (lead designer), Sony (customer, and major supplier of video management hardware), and Toshiba (intended large-scale manufacturer) with the intent of creating a new chip for Sony's PlayStation 3 that would be faster and provide more realistic games. About two years into the $400 million project, however, IBM agreed to let Microsoft (Sony's main competitor) also use the chip, with modifications. Microsoft ended up bringing its new XBox 360 to market ahead of Sony, partly due to IBM's bungling the early fabrication testing and development, and partly due to Microsoft's having a backup hardware source and being willing to gamble on introduction without thorough testing.
Shippy easily convinces readers that the hardware design team worked quite hard, including an extended stretch of 80+ hour weeks, but provides no real sense of how difficult their tasks were. Their motivation to meet the deadlines and performance goals was a mix of professional pride and personal reward - but Shippy never tells readers what (if any) those ultimate rewards were.
One very real tragedy is that a number of key players left soon afterward completion (or before), so I'm guessing there were no motivating stock option awards given. Stories of occasional inexcusable IBM management outbursts also left me shaking my head.
The second tragedy is the damage done to IBM's credibility - allowing Microsoft to jump on-board a half-finished project initiated and funded by its primary competitor in that market, and even beat Sony to market.
Bottom Line: I recommend Shippy's book, but only to top IBM management - they could learn a lot from it.
Beautiful insight Well... I wanted to know people behind the PS3 and XBox 360 for quite some time. But I was surprised to find (by virtue of this book) that the same set of people created the microprocessors for both the consoles. The book is a good read. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in this stuff.
Worst-written book I've read in Years The subject matter of this book is fascinating. Having followed the development of the Power PC chips for years, I was looking forward to some insight into the world behind IBM's microprocessor development.
This book is poor on so many levels, yet I will focus on one. The writing. Written in first-person as if it were a dime-store detective novel (not a compliment), I had to suffer through puerile descriptions of how the "author" (he had a writer "help" him): "growled through gritted teeth", and "slapped my hand on the table". Do people really talk like this? No, they don't. And they really shouldn't write like this either.
My best guess is that the book was only about 50 pages after the first draft, and they were faced with a choice:
1. Beef up the book with fascinating technical details or interviews with industry folks.
2. Pad this sloppy prose with fluff.
They went with option 2. It really reads like they were getting paid by the word. Shame on the editor. Stuff like this should never make it to print.
Shame is, there are several *really* good books on technology and video games: "Game Over", "The Last Quarter", "The Cuckoo's Egg", etc. The author even mentions "The Soul of a New Machine" in the preface. You'd think having read that book they would be ashamed to publish the tripe they produced.
It was too limited in scope The author spoke of the situation like it was truly grand in scope and size and yet, you only get a single persons point of view. I only got about 2/3 of the way through the book before giving up on it. Truly disappointing. A very interesting subject that basically boiled down to one person flaunting their accomplishments and talking about parties.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
