Дабы проиллюстрировать сказанное, приведу цитату этого же места из 3-го издания (2002 г.):
 
 
«This growth rate, combined with the cost advantages of a mass-produced microprocessor, led to an increasing fraction of the computer business being based on microprocessors. In addition, two significant changes in the computer marketplace made it easier than ever before to be commercially successful with a new architecture. First, the virtual elimination of assembly language programming reduced the need for object-code compatibility. Second, the creation of standardized, vendor-independent operating systems, such as UNIX and its clone, Linux, lowered the cost and risk of bringing out a new architecture.

These changes made it possible to successfully develop a new set of architectures, called RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architectures, in the early 1980s. The RISC-based machines focused the attention of designers on two critical performance techniques, the exploitation of instruction-level parallelism (initially through pipelining and later through multiple instruction issue) and the use of caches (initially in simple forms and later using more sophisticated organizations and optimizations). The combination of architectural and organizational enhancements has led to 20 years of sustained growth in performance at an annual rate of over 50%. Figure 1.1 shows the effect of this difference in performance growth rates.

The effect of this dramatic growth rate has been twofold. First, it has significantly enhanced the capability available to computer users. For many applications, the highest performance microprocessors of today outperform the supercomputer of less than 10 years ago».
 
 
По-моему, изменения текста прекрасны и красноречивы. :)

И мы можем видеть довольно чётко между 1998 и 2003 годами переход от ещё относительно нормального развития ИТ к превращению отрасли в промышленное обезьяноводство.

На момент подготовки этой версии книжки авторы ещё не знали, что «закон Мура» вот-вот закончится. :)