Bright Boys
Tom Green
A story about the development of the Whirlwind at MIT – the first digital computer. The role of the military and the post WWII Cold War and the development of the latest aircraft were the critical facilitating factors
The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company
David Packard
It is almost a must to read an HP history somewhere along the line… They don’t make for the swash buckling story of a larry ellison to be sure but good folk.
Only The Paranoid Survive
Andrew S. Grove
From Intel’s chairman — chronicle of the company’s development
City of Light
Jeff Hecht
Very reasonable read of the history of fiber optics and simple explanations of the relevant technology
Accidental Empires
Robert X. Cringely
All the egos of the PC age — easy read
Dealers of Lightning
Michael A. Hiltzik
Xerox PARC at one point had an embarrassingly large number of super talents of the computer and communications world… this is the story of the organization… outstanding
High Noon
Karen Southwick
Sun Microsystem saga
Insanely Great
Steven Levey
The story of the PC revolving around Steve Jobs and Apple
Inside Intel
Tim Jackson
Great great history piece on Intel
Microcosm
George Gilder
One of the most interesting and thorough pieces ever written about how the semiconductor world developed
The Dream Machine
M. Mitchell Waldrop
A tribute to one of the heroes of the PC age… JCR Licklider
The HP Way
David Packard
The story of Hewlett Packard from David Packard’s eyes
The Search
John Battelle
A wonderful review of the history of search and Google’s role in it.
The Qualcomm Equation
David Mock
Good chronological review of the qualcomm story and more importantly an analysis of the extraordinary brilliant achievement in creating an entire ecosystem in order to get the cdma technology adopted..
The Soul of a New Machine
Tracy Kidder
Pulitzer prize winner about actually getting a mini-computer to market…
A Brief History of the Future
John Naughton
Chronicles key developments if the Internet — very easy and enjoyable read
The Road Ahead
Bill Gates
Doesn’t go much of anywhere — paperback edition acknowledged the Internet
Game Over
David Sheff
“How Nintendo Conquered the World” — mid 70s thru mid 90s look at the development of the gaming market
Weaving the Web
Tim Berners-Lee
Balanced view of how the World Wide Web developed and changed life from its creator.
The Search
John Battelle
A wonderful review of the history of search and Google’s role in it.