Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 208 pages
- Published by: Wiley-IEEE Computer Society Pr
- Edition: 1st Edition December 23, 2005
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0471736171
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0471736172
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Book Dimensions:
9.8 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches
- Weighs: 12 ounces
Reader Reviews
I rated this book as three stars because the title promised more than it delivered. Nevertheless, it is a very good book, especially for people who have to manage huge projects in complex technical areas. Colwell clearly is skilled in technology, and has tremendous insight and experience to convey. My expectations were different. Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine created excitement and tension into the development of computers, at least as of the early 1980s. The machine was successful for Data General to some extent, but faded as a blip in history that few remember. Intel's P6, Colwell's baby, is totally the opposite, selling hundreds of millions of copies in multiple forms since its inception. Kidder spins magic about the development process. Colwell tells how to make it happen -- no magic, just cleverness and grunt work. What I found most valuable were Colwell's methods for taking on this huge project. Quantify your goals, quantify the merits of each idea, and quantify your progress toward the goal. Without these measurements, you have no idea when you will finish and whether you will succeed when you get there. In a field where technology moves very quickly, the difference between success and failure is not so much if you complete the job, but when you complete the job. Colwell pulls some punches because of corporate and personal sensitivities. He does not tell us very much about the P6 processor, but what is revealed is done skillfully in layman terms so that the nontechnical reader can follow the development. For something this complex there has to be dozens of interesting facets whose challenges and successful development would make for a good read. Out-of-order execution, that is, the ability to reorder program instructions on the fly in order to boost performance, gets the biggest play. Chefs prepare courses out of order when they prepare elegant meals. Desserts may be started first and eaten last, if the dessert preparation time exceeds the entree preparation time. Colwell uses his own analogies to explain this, and it works quite well. Apart from out-of-order execution, very little else is developed. It may be that Kidder's book actually has more technical content, but I have not taken the time to make the comparison. The point is that Colwell comes up short in the technical arena, and this is a disappointment. The fact that Colwell is both the author and the project manager makes for a sharp contrast with Kidder's work because Kidder was an outsider and was not responsible for technical decisions, whereas Colwell expends many pages defending his design choices. The personal involvement detracts from this defense, because it leaves the reader wondering if the defense is self-serving or is actually a fair appraisal of the facts. Sensitivies come to the fore in the final pages when Colwell describes recognition as well as litigation arising from the P6 project. Perhaps thousands of people participated in some fashion over a five year period, and only a few were heralded by Intel. How do you select them, and how do you placate the wannabes? The litigation relates to patent infringment allegations, which Colwell equates to accusations of theft of ideas. In reality, patent infringement does not necessarily involve theft of ideas. The patent system is such that people can develop products whose infringement with patents cannot be discovered until after the products are on the market. (This was the case in the 1990s when patent applications were secret for the several years between their date of filing and the date of their issuing. Currently, patents are made public immediately after filing, even though they are not valid yet. This helps reduce accidental infringement.) Colwell believes the infringement suit against the P6 that he cites soils his reputation for honesty. It really does not. Intel licensed the patent in question, with words that credited the inventor for contributing to the P6. This incenses Colwell because the P6 design was done independently of the licensed patent. An outsider would probably relate the facts with words less charged with emotion, and the book would improve. To sum up my views of the book, it has major strengths in management techniques, and falls short in entertainment value. The Kidder book as well as Michael Malone's book entitled The Microprocessor, A Biography, are two that are high in entertainment that I would recommend ahead of Colwell's book for reading on the airplane. On the other hand, if your company has just selected you to move forward its technology with a horizon of five to ten years, you had better put Colwell on your required reading list.
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