In this book, Silverthread co-founder Carliss Baldwin (with Kim Clark) illustrates the means by which modularity helps innovation. She makes the case using many examples including a graphics controller, a motherboard, and a laptop computer. The book illustrates the means by which modularity in a system creates economic value and presents tools and techniques for thinking about and measuring modularity. Carliss persuasively argues that the modular design of the IBM/360 fundamentally transformed the field of computer architecture, and also transformed the structure and scale of the hardware and software industry by increasing the return on investment of R&D activities.