This is surprisingly similar to the story of home computers in Brazil.
From 1984 (during which time we were under a military dictatorship) to 1991, we were under a market reserve. Because of this, the computers we had were either cloned from smuggled devices, or, funnily enough, devices imported legally with the intention of being reverse engineered.
Reverse engineering was not only legal, it was encouraged by the reserve. Due to government incentives, even companies that had nothing to do with computers ended up building them.
Cloned computers ranged from ZX81 and Apple II+, to ones with more elaborate circuitry, such as the Mac 512 (this one has a lot of interesting stories -- albeit somewhat sad, in a sense --, some even involves orange juice embargo from the US government).
The idea behind the reserve was to create a computer hardware industry in Brazil, but this ended up never happening the way it was supposed to happen.
Although locally-developed peripherals were made, there were very few computers that were actually designed in Brazil that ended up having a significant portion of the market. Clones thrived, mostly. Local semiconductor companies failed to produce quality components, but those were used anyway. Some companies managed to import (with special permission from the government) processors and other components we were never able to properly manufacture.
In a move that's both obvious and surprising, the focus moved to software when the reserve was finally lifted.
Obvious because, although we had many skilled people that managed to reverse engineer circuits (including ASICs, as was the case with the Unitron Mac), and build new ones, often improving them (either making them faster, more reliable, or just cheaper), we still depended on foreign technology to build our computers. The whole idea of the reserve was to reduce that dependency.
Surprising because, during the reserve, software was most often hacked versions of foreign stuff. Although some important bits and pieces (such as compilers, operating systems, CAD programs, word processing and a bunch of other stuff) ended up being made locally, unless you're a collector, you're not going to find the remnants of these bits.
From 1984 (during which time we were under a military dictatorship) to 1991, we were under a market reserve. Because of this, the computers we had were either cloned from smuggled devices, or, funnily enough, devices imported legally with the intention of being reverse engineered.
Reverse engineering was not only legal, it was encouraged by the reserve. Due to government incentives, even companies that had nothing to do with computers ended up building them.
Cloned computers ranged from ZX81 and Apple II+, to ones with more elaborate circuitry, such as the Mac 512 (this one has a lot of interesting stories -- albeit somewhat sad, in a sense --, some even involves orange juice embargo from the US government).
The idea behind the reserve was to create a computer hardware industry in Brazil, but this ended up never happening the way it was supposed to happen.
Although locally-developed peripherals were made, there were very few computers that were actually designed in Brazil that ended up having a significant portion of the market. Clones thrived, mostly. Local semiconductor companies failed to produce quality components, but those were used anyway. Some companies managed to import (with special permission from the government) processors and other components we were never able to properly manufacture.
In a move that's both obvious and surprising, the focus moved to software when the reserve was finally lifted.
Obvious because, although we had many skilled people that managed to reverse engineer circuits (including ASICs, as was the case with the Unitron Mac), and build new ones, often improving them (either making them faster, more reliable, or just cheaper), we still depended on foreign technology to build our computers. The whole idea of the reserve was to reduce that dependency.
Surprising because, during the reserve, software was most often hacked versions of foreign stuff. Although some important bits and pieces (such as compilers, operating systems, CAD programs, word processing and a bunch of other stuff) ended up being made locally, unless you're a collector, you're not going to find the remnants of these bits.