Incompatible Computer Dreams: Contested Computer Exports to the United States
The MIT Press eBooks · 2025
As customs officials, computer companies, and the Taiwanese continue to crack down on computer clones, consumers should be wary of any computers coming to this country from Taiwan.Mr. Lu points out the Taiwanese make computer components.They don't manufacture any brand name computers of their own.So, if you see such a computer, don't buy it.-New Tech Times, Wisconsin Public Television, circa 1983 1 Mass-manufacturing computers in Taiwan had been a technological dream of many scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and computer users since the late 1950s.Roughly two decades later, Chiao-Tung alumnus, seasoned micropro cessor engineer, and fledgling entrepreneur Stan Shih came to realize the dream (figure 7.4).Beginning in the late 1970s, entrepreneurs around the world witnessed the unpre ce dented opportunity to import micropro cessors such as the Zilog Z80, MOS technology 6502, or Intel 8088 to make microcomputers domestically.To build computers, they could purchase or customize motherboards, memory, cases, and the remaining computer parts locally or overseas.The strong electronics industry in Taiwan brought advantages to computer makers there to procure most parts they needed domestically.Shih and a good number of Taiwanese computer manufacturers began to make Apple and IBM compatible computers in the early 1980s.Founded in 1976, Shih's com pany Multitech, renamed Acer in 1987, was a forerunner in micropro cessor programming.Calling his com pany "the gardener of micropro cessors," he employed a group of engineers equipped with the knowledge and skills to develop microprocessor-based products.The technological dream shared by Shih and his fellow entrepreneurs was challenged in the 1980s by Apple and IBM, which held patents and copyrights for their 8