Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
9
Bring on the Clones
"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history -
with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila."
- Mitch Ratcliffe, programmer
From the start, the Macintosh was a "closed" architecture. Unlike the PC or the Apple II,
there were no slots for users to add boards or otherwise customize the hardware. There were
also to be no clones of this or any other Apple machine, because Apple controlled all rights
to its operating system and held patents on the vast majority of Macintosh parts. Going for-
ward, Apple was always to remain the sole purveyor of any of its hardware products, as well
as its operating systems, thus dictating prices for the market.
Not so with regard to the IBM PC, for which IBM owned only the rudimentary BIOS
input/output code. IBM had no exclusivity in its license for MS-DOS. As well, the PC was
made up of parts from other manufacturers for which IBM held no exclusive rights. Thus
competitors were free to reverse engineer their own versions of the PC to run MS-DOS so
long as they devised their own BIOS code, which was not hard to do.
The first out of the gate was a machine from a new firm called Compaq (acronym for
Compatability and Quality
), formed in 1982 by three former Texas Instruments engineers:
Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto. The "Compaq Portable" emerged in 1983 - a ma-
chine capable of doing everything the PC could, running precisely the same software, but
considerably smaller - so much so that it gained the slang name "suitcase computer." This
was rapidly followed by Compaq's aggressively priced "DeskPro" line of desktop com-
puters. Per Ceruzzi: "What made it a success was its complete compatibility with the IBM
PC at a competitive price. Compaq's sales propelled the company into the top 100 rankings
of computer companies by 1985, one of the fastest trajectories of any start-up." Compaq
would go on to be acquired by another clone-maker, Hewlett-Packard, in 2002 - at a price of
$25 billion.
At first, few clones other than Compaq's offered full compatibility. The ability to run
Lotus
1-2-3
or
Microsoft Flight Simulator
became a standard stress test employed by re-
viewers and users. Soon, Phoenix Technologies developed an IBM-compatible BIOS avail-
able for license - enabling virtually anyone to build a 100% compatible clone without any
R&D whatsoever. Thus other clones soon followed from such new firms as Michael Dell's
PCs Limited - firms which were to log far more unit-sales than would IBM through the
years.
After Compaq, Dell's firm turned into the most significant of all clone makers. As a stu-
dent at the University of Texas, Austin, Michael Dell launched PCs Limited out of his dorm
