Smart components operating within a de facto standard operating system meant that the job of systems integration became almost trivially simple. The skills at systems integration that IBM and DEC had built up over decades were no longer needed. That was why my engineer-informant had lost his job. With the glue of proprietary systems engineering no longer so important, the industry deconstructed itself. Modules did not have to be custom designed to work with every other part. To get a working system, customers did not have to buy everything from a single supplier. Specialist firms began to
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