Review: “Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology” by Chris Miller (audiobook edition)
I decided towards the end of 2022 that I would read the winner of the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award and any other book on the shortlist that sounded interesting.
I fell on my feet because Chip War is a book that I would have read even if it hadn’t won; I’ve read quite a few articles and books on computing history (primarily American-focused) and each one adds more details and new viewpoints.
Chip War does a good job of explaining what a transistor and an integrated circuit is and gives a clear picture of just how revolutionary these technologies have been. I had not considered the extent of the world-changing aspects of the transistor (“Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.” – Douglas Adams), even though I follow news in the technology field closely.
The book is mostly a history of the technology industry and how it develops through the 1960s to the present day. At the end there is an in-depth look at the situation as it exists at the moment and how that could project into the future. There are many interesting aspects to the story: how political and military policies underpinned developments; how Japan came to be such a threatening competitor during the 1980s (and its subsequent decline in the 1990s); the expansion of outsourcing production to Asia – especially Taiwan and South Korea – and the coming of fab-less manufacturing; the ingenuity and engineering excellence needed to produce modern silicon chips; the rise of several companies that are now household names in the tech industry – including Qualcomm, Nvidia and Huawei; the impact of the mobile phone and, of course, the rise of China.
The book is well structured. Clear, short chapters (which in the audiobook version last around 10 to 15 minutes) allow you to consume the story in convenient chunks but more often than not keep you reading / listening to the next one and then the next – this is compulsive stuff.
Relating to the audiobook version specifically, the narration is poor, particularly at the beginning of the book. Perhaps I got used to it in the second half of the book as it did not seem so bad but the content is really let down by the delivery. There seems to be no life in the telling of the story – I often had to rewind a section to listen again to an interesting point or piece of data just because it was delivered so flatly. Also, in a book about the microchip business it would be advisable to get someone who knows how to pronounce the company name Intel – or if you are going to say it wrong at least be consistent because sometimes it is said correctly.
I’ve not had this reaction to a narrator for a good while – and it’s not just the narration, it’s the audio production as well. It is clear that the reading has been touched up at some points after the original recording. It is jarring when you hear the odd word or phrase sound slightly different and it takes you out of the flow of the story. I thought that publishing companies had realised that this is no longer acceptable in an audiobook version. This subject matter is going to appeal to the type of reader who is likely to notice. And with the arrival of digital narration of good-enough quality (which is only going to get better with time) hopefully the jig is up for these below-par narrators who detract from a book’s content. Chalk that up as another positive shift attributable to the silicon chip.
Don’t let that stop you reading this book – it is well written and you might learn a lot – I certainly did. I recommend it highly.
Also:
• Spare Cycles: Article: “The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce” by Tom Wolfe
• Spare Cycles: Article: “SPACEWAR” by Stewart Brand (Rolling Stone magazine, December 1972)
• Spare Cycles: Mini review: “The Soul Of A New Machine” by Tracy Kidder
• Spare Cycles: Podcast: Spacebridge (Showcase from Radiotopia)
• Spare Cycles: Mini review: “A Logic Named Joe” by Murray Leinster (From “Machines That Think”, an early 1980s science fiction short story anthology)
• Spare Cycles: Mini review: “Troublemakers: How a Generation of Silicon Valley Upstarts Invented The Future” by Leslie Berlin
• YouTube: Transistorized documentary
Spare Cycles 