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Book Cover
E-book
Author Baldwin, Carliss Y. (Carliss Young)

Title Design rules. Volume 1, The power of modularity / Carliss Y. Baldwin and Kim B. Clark
Published Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2000

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Description 1 online resource (x, 471 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations (some color)
Summary Annotation We live in a dynamic economic and commerical world, surrounded by objects of remarkable complexity and power. In many industries, changes in products and technologies have brought with them new kinds of firms and forms of organization. We are discovering news ways of structuring work, of bringing buyers and sellers together, and of creating and using market information. Although our fast-moving economy often seems to be outside of our influence or control, human beings create the things that create the market forces. Devices, software programs, production processes, contracts, firms, and markets are all the fruit of purposeful action: they are designed. Using the computer industry as an example, Carliss Y. Baldwin and Kim B. Clark develop a powerful theory of design and industrial evolution. They argue that the industry has experienced previously unimaginable levels of innovation and growth because it embraced the concept of modularity, building complex products from smaller subsystems that can be designed independently yet function together as a whole. Modularity freed designers to experiment with different approaches, as long as they obeyed the established design rules. Drawing upon the literatures of industrial organization, real options, and computer architecture, the authors provide insight into the forces of change that drive today's economy
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Electronic digital computers -- Design and construction -- History
Modularity (Engineering)
Computer industry -- History
Industrial organization.
COMPUTERS -- Machine Theory.
COMPUTERS -- Computer Engineering.
COMPUTERS -- Hardware -- General.
Modularity (Engineering)
Computer industry -- History.
Industrial organization.
Electronic digital computers -- Design and construction -- History.
Computer industry.
Electronic digital computers -- Design and construction.
Industrial organization.
Modularity (Engineering)
Genre/Form History.
Form Electronic book
Author Clark, Kim B
ISBN 0585353190
9780585353197
9780262291859
0262291851
Other Titles Power of modularity