Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Buy Used
Used - Good See details
$8.25 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Portraits In Silicon
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Portraits In Silicon [Paperback]

Robert Slater (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Price: $29.00 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
  Special Offers Available
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 2 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Tuesday, January 31? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Textbook Student FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students. Learn more

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover --  
Paperback $29.00  

Book Description

February 15, 1989

Who are the masterminds of today's electronic revolution and what motivated them? That's the question Time correspondent Robert Slater asked as he traveled to Silicon Valley to interview the designers, entrepreneurs, hardware engineers, and software writers who have given us the modern computer.Robert Slater is a member of the reporting staff of the Time Jerusalem bureau.


Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)

Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed


Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Slater, a Time correspondent based in Jerusalem, has written sketches of 34 key individuals in the electronics revolution. They range from Babbage and Turing to Richie and Thompson (UNIX), Jobs (Apple), and Knuth ( The Art of Computer Programming ). Many of these figures have been similarly dealt with elsewhere (e.g., David Richie's The Computer Pioneers, LJ 2/15/86). However, Slater does include a number of individuals overlooked by others: Jay Forrester of IBM, H. Ross Perot of EDS, and others. The sketches, well written and thoughtful, provide a good overview of the evolution and development of the computer field. Hilary Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Livermore, Cal.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"The book contains clearly written thumbnail sketches of 31 people who were of paramount importance in the conception and creation of the computer industry... Slater's portraits always manage to be interesting and occasionally riveting. There are 10- to 15-page portraits of the early workers, such as Babbage, Turing, and von Neumann.... Also included are silicon chip inventors such as Jack Kilby, mainframe designers Gene Amdahl and Seymour Cray, and software specialists Grace Hopper (COBOL), John Backus (FORTRAN), Kemeny and Kurtz (BASIC), and Richie and Thompson (UNIX).... [Slater's] breezy journalistic style reveals the personal side of these computer industry pioneers." Science Books & Films


Product Details

  • Paperback: 398 pages
  • Publisher: The MIT Press (February 15, 1989)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0262691310
  • ISBN-13: 978-0262691314
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,247,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Slater was born in New York City on October 1, 1943, and grew up in South Orange, New Jersey. He graduated from Columbia High School in 1962 and graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966, where he majored in political science. He received a masters of science degree in international relations from the London School of Economics in 1967. He worked for UPI and Time Magazine for many years, in both the United States and the Middle East.
Slater has written 16 books about major business personalities before his new book on Donald Trump:
' The Titans of Takeover (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1987).
' Portraits in Silicon (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987).
' This ... .Is CBS: A Chronicle of 60 Years (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1988).
' The New GE: How Jack Welch Revived an American Institution (Homewood, IL: Business One Irwin, 1993).
' Get Better or Get Beaten! 31 Leadership Secrets from GE's Jack Welch (Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1994). This book made the business best-seller list in Japan.
' SOROS: The Life, Times, and Trading Secrets of the World's Greatest Investor (Chicago, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996). This book profiles superinvestor George Soros, and it appeared on the Business Week best-seller list.
' Invest First, Investigate Later: And 23 Other Trading Secrets of George Soros, the Legendary Investor (Chicago, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996).
' John Bogle and the Vanguard Experiment: One Man's Quest to Transform the Mutual Fund Industry (Chicago, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996). This book profiles the most important business figure in the mutual fund field.
' Ovitz: The Inside Story of Hollywood's Most Controversial Power Broker (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1997). This book made the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times business best-seller lists.
' Jack Welch and the GE Way: Management Insights and Leadership Secrets of the Legendary CEO (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1998). This is an updated look at the business secrets of General Electric's chairman and chief executive officer. It made the Business Week and The Wall Street Journal best-seller lists.
' Saving Big Blue: Leadership Lessons & Turnaround Tactics of IBM's Lou Gerstner (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1999).
' The GE Way Fieldbook: Jack Welch's Battle Plan for Corporate Revolution (New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1999).
' The Eye of the Storm: How John Chambers Steered Cisco Systems Through the Technology Collapse (New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2003).
' Magic Cancer Bullet: How a Tiny Orange Capsule May Rewrite Medical History (New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2003), co-authored with Novartis CEO, Dan Vasella.
' The Wal-Mart Decade: How a New Generation of Leaders Turned Sam Walton's Legacy into the World's #1 Company (New York, NY: Portfolio, 2003). A paperback version was published in June 2004.
' Microsoft Rebooted: How Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer Re-Invented Their Company (New York, NY: Portfolio, 2004
' No Such Thing as Over-Exposure: Inside the Life and Celebrity of Donald Trump (New Jersey, Pearson, Prentice Hall, February 2005)


 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Necessary Reading For Computer Types, November 15, 1997
By 
This review is from: Portraits In Silicon (Paperback)
This book is a series of bibliographic essays on the people behind the computer revolution. The subjects range from hardware builders to software writers to those that expanded the uses of computers. If you are a computer enthusiast, a lover of history or just a fan of a good book, this is definite reading.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


5.0 out of 5 stars The People Behind the Computers, October 28, 2000
By 
David Gurgel (Roseland, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Portraits In Silicon (Paperback)
The book starts with a brief bio of Charles Babbage from the nineteenth century and then continues with twenty-seven twentieth century masterminds behind computer software, hardware, and business models. Each subject receives ten to twelve well-written pages by prolific journalist Robert Slater - Von Neumann and Shannon, Mauchly and Aiken, Shockley and Cray, Gates and Jobs, Backus and Knuth, and many others.

This book is for the serious reader, interested in the history of science and technology.

The book is part of my 900-volume library on science and technology, and I strongly recommend it. With the short chapters on each subject, the book would make a good gift - something to be carried in a brief case on long trips.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book., January 18, 1998
By 
This review is from: Portraits In Silicon (Paperback)
This is the choice when you need to know how the computer came possible.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:


Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
 
(46)
(26)
(5)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums





Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject