The Computer Chronicles - Asian Clones (1987)

[@jcnbw01]

I'm amazed how Taiwan was able to position itself as the key semiconductor manufacturer just as the computer revolution was taking off. Much respect.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

There is a saying: “it takes years to become an overnight success”. While the USA and others of that ilk were embracing “Reaganomics” and proclaiming that the Government should take a hands-off approach because it was not competent to pick winners and losers in business, the Taiwanese (and other Asians) were setting up partnerships between Government and business to invest in new industries for the long haul.

[@McVaio]

​@@lawrencedoliveiro9104And look where Taiwan is now compared to the USA.

[@seanhornibrook]

"OEM Tech" LMFAO what a great company name...

[@richardsequeirateixeira]

Yeah in Mandarin or in other languages the initials sounds great, but in the English speaking word, it does not sound great.

[@sassymenses]

They should've called themselves "Place O.E.M. name here", or "To be filled by O.E.M.", or something like that :)

[@ZephniStrife]

@@sassymenses i dont get it :(

[@sassymenses]

@@ZephniStrife win-r dxdiag

[@craigtheduck]

They's still kicking.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

This was also the beginning of the “white box” industry, where companies in various markets would import cheap but good-quality machines from no-name Taiwanese manufacturers and sell them locally under their own brand names.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

21:27 ERSO, the creators of the “ERSO BIOS”, commonly found in these white-box clones.

[@mindphaserxy]

Man look at that young Stan Shih. Acer really came out on the top end of the market.

[@ryanwiseman9141]

David Alan I love how Stan is like no I'm better than Steve Jobs, what I did was harder. Great!

[@BrakRulesAll]

I had a Multitech 386/16mhz back in the day, before the name switched to Acer. $3300 - with a full megabyte of memory! Daughtercard to take it to 2mb was $500 - not including the RAM chips. How far we've come.

[@8BitNaptime]

That poor man @15:21 seems to be manually checking a netlist

[@rfengr00]

22:00 this mans strategy paid off, as 33 years later TSMC leads the worlds semiconductor production.

[@doyouknowme4061]

Lol, this is hilarious. How things have changed so much since then. I had my first computer at 10 years old. I was 9 when episode aired.

[@Sams911]

I am the only one finding it ironic that Stan Shih of Acer who denied being "the Steve Jobs of Taiwan" is now weathier than Steve Jobs ever was??

[@Ojisan642]

For people in the 21st century watching this - they’re talking about cloning the IBM PC, not cloning people. 😉

[@ichigokarasu]

The tonal shift between this and the Japan-specific episode in the previous year, or so, is interesting, to say the least. (Not certain, as these are typically not in chronological airing order within their respective playlists; despite being grouped by year. I'd imagine that this is due to the fact that the uploaders take what they can get in terms of source material, and some of these seem to be rebroadcast episodes, ostensibly on weeks when the show was not airing a new ep.) While the language in the Japan episode employed words like, "strange," "weird," and the like to cast Japan as "the other," this episode roundly praises foreign manufacturing and tech firms. Why? The same reason why you're nice to your pet, instead of being afraid that it's going to gnaw your arm off or go for your throat. Everyone saw what Japanese design and innovation were capable of in the ~late 60's into the 80's, and they were a legitimate threat. When you have someone doing your outsourced manufacturing for you, and you know you've brought them to heel, any innovation is "cute," like your kitty curled up in a box. They're serving a purpose for you, and not getting in your way. But heaven help them if they would have tried to really, directly, tried to challenge the egos in charge in the US of A. I'm not saying that these innovations are worth any less; far from it. Acer went on to make a huge name for itself, along with countless other brands from Asia we still use to this day. I'm just saying that that's the way they appear to spin this sort of thing, here.

[@McVaio]

Except for Toshiba, Japan largely failed in the computer industry as it turned out. So somehow the "egos in charge" found ways to stay competitive and keep Japan at bay in the American computer industry.

[@HardCase1911]

You kids never experienced the crushing oppression of IBM in the 80s.

[@lucius1976]

@Shanae OS/2 was not that bad of an OS. It just lost because the driver support was shit. If the hardware vendors do not develop for it every OS is doomed. In Linux you still had freaks who develop the drivers themselves if necessary.

[@craigtheduck]

@@lucius1976 And the reason why driver support was shit was because IBM's primary line of hardware at the peak of OS/2, the PS/2 series, used the entirely proprietary Micro Channel architecture.

[@ericn9vjg]

Microtek made great scanners. Now Epson has overtaken them.

[@gluttonousmaximus9048]

I can't find any trace to mainland China's first 286 clone from the Great Wall Company...

[@CMDRScotty]

Taiwan is and ought to be an independent country with a seat in the U.N.

[@ryanwiseman9141]

WILMA WANG 2020!!!

[@Lurker1979]

Not going to catch up. Amazing how time has happen. I use a Asus ROG latptop. Made in Taiwan. Very good computer.

[@allentoyokawa9068]

intel is still far bigger

[@bcburnettcom]

its 2021 and a used at is still 999.00 on ebay

[@ninjasiren]

Decades after, Taiwan leads the computing and semiconductor production market (TSMC)

[@sf840]

20:30

[@compaqdeskpro5770]

Meanwhile in 2022 TSMC has a monopoly on the cutting edge, and if you want to make something fast or mobile it better be made there. Were at the point the gov is likely seriously thinking above blockading it. The nationalist undertone in the name "Republic of Gamers" is pretty awesome.

[@bloqk16]

Interesting with how primitive it was back then when it came to business. Note the CompuServe commercial at the beginning, where it gave out an '800' number to contact them, yet, for being an ISP, it was odd they didn't supplement that with displaying 'www' to contact them.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

The Web didn’t exist back then.

[@MaxPower-11]

The very first websites didn’t come online until 1991 and the research project at CERN that designed the protocols that enabled them didn’t start until 1989. As such, in the 1980s CompuServe wasn’t really what we would think of today as an ISP (well, the concept itself didn’t even exist back then) but more of an online service provider with a proprietary user interface that facilitated access to curated online information and access to electronic mail service.

[@GrandpaHerman1]

Don't worry. American industry is doing just fine.

[@ResonanceHub]

Not in terms of computers, now china has 80% of silicon production of the world, add korea and taiwan and you have almost all production just on 3 countries

[@lucius1976]

Not really. It is even struggling in the remaining ones. Manufacturing is just not viable in US. Look at Boeing. Seems perfectly fine manufactures are ruined by profit maximization focus.

[@gnuemacs1166]

@@lucius1976 Boeing used Hindus instead of Americans so now their planes crash

[@allentoyokawa9068]

@@ResonanceHub and Japan, not korea and china makes junk

[@allentoyokawa9068]

@@ResonanceHub Japan makes the most silcon for chips

[@McVaio]

Dell, HP and technically Lenovo (IBM) are still the biggest computer manufacturers. Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Microsoft, Google, Apple and others are still at the top. Gary Kildall was right; the Taiwanese never caught up. They are still copying others but don't pull the innovation. Yes, Asus and Acer are big, but what did they invent? All the other Taiwanese names are long gone.

[@MaxPower-11]

PC assembly has become a relatively low-value commodity industry and the Taiwanese moved up in the value chain. They now dominate advanced semiconductor manufacturing crucial for the PC industry as a whole. Even Intel is now using their foundries (AMD uses them exclusively).

[@Compucore]

I don't even remember this episode at all from the Computer Chronicles. But a really good show from the past that I do remember watching when I could in Canada.

[@kagamihiiragi602]

拍這部片的時候，張忠謀還是國家的公務員

[@fingolfirn8189]

Sí, seguro.

[@infinitecanadian]

This is in English. Please use English.

[@tarstarkusz]

How wrong can you be? I don't think there is a single computer sold in the US that is made in the US. Maybe a couple are assembled in the US, but not a single one made in the US.

[@tarstarkusz]

Emily eighteen Most are actually made in China, though admittedly there is a lot of assembly going on in China and the chips are much more likely to come from Japan, the US or Taiwan. Taiwan doesn't have the same labor conditions as China, it's not Japan or US, but it's no China either.

[@realgroovy24]

Emily eighteen you're confusing computers with shoes.

[@prispalos]

Back then they were genuinely made in the US

[@RonaldMcDonald519]

Taiwan was crushing it back in the day

[@AvindraGoolcharan]

Back in the day? TSMC still printing everybodys chips.

[@allentoyokawa9068]

not anymore

[@OnionMad]

I missed the part when they sent in the clones....

[@westwest123]

Wonder how he is reacting now when he said they will never catch up

[@joaogrrr]

Bruh

[@jameszheng4455]

Mans pissed off the wrong bikers and died seven years after this episode aired.

[@morbidmanmusic]

he is dead

[@McVaio]

He was right. Where are the Taiwanese now in terms of innovation? Dell, HP, IBM, Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Tesla... the top tech firms are still mostly American.

[@Daehawk]

Thank goodness for these companies or we'd still be using IBM and crap and no games much.

[@rustynail6819]

Would you trust a guy named Bobo Wang? LOL!!!!!

[@rooneye]

Acer is still going strong, though it's a cheap ass brand you wouldn't associate with quality, but you certainly would associate superb top of the market quality from Asus, who I didn't see mentioned here, not sure when they started up, but they are a Taiwan company that espouses everything that these guys were aiming for here. They totally succeeded in their long term vision. Still never heard of Tatung though lol Or OEM Tech :D

[@potatosalad5355]

About TATUNG, back in the end of 70s we get in my parent house the second Color 12in TV TATUNG brand in Southamerica. This brand is very STRONG in Asian, South Pacific and Australia/ New Zealand area in the past and now.

[@JackBandicootsBunker]

ASUS was founded in April 1989, less than two years after this program was aired.

[@craigtheduck]

another great Taiwanese company is ASRock, who actually makes the only microATX Threadripper board (albeit it's an earlier generation X399 board instead of a newer sTRX40 board)

[@JackBandicootsBunker]

@@craigtheduck ASRock also started as a subsidiary of ASUS, later spun off from the conglomerate and now under the umbrella of what was ASUS’ manufacturing arm, Pegatron.

[@estebanvillalobos2303]

taiwan is a country that exists

[@SkuldChan42]

Taiwan #1

[@allentoyokawa9068]

Japan fool

[@realgroovy24]

China will follow the same way as Taiwan, once makers of cheap low quality products then will soon be a manufacturer in high quality products, or just look up made in china 2025. but hahahah Acer! never knew they were Taiwanese.

[@oldtwins]

Well, perhaps. But this was predicted long ago by putting factories into sub-Saharan Africa. For reasons that might cause a race riot, let's just say this hasn't happened and probably never will for anyone's lifetime currently alive.

[@randywatson8347]

O boy how it turned out... Xiaomi, Huawei...

[@JackBandicootsBunker]

Those are Chinese brands. The examples you’d want to look up to are Acer, ASUS and TSMC.