Editing Clone (computing) (section)

==Hardware==
[[File:FC-Twin-Console-Set-H.jpg|thumbnail|The FC Twin famiclone designed to look like an [[SNS-101]]. This unit plays both NES and SNES cartridges.]]

===Hardware clones===
When [[IBM]] announced the [[IBM PC]] in 1981, other companies such as [[Compaq]] decided to offer clones of the PC as a legal reimplementation from the PC's documentation or [[reverse engineering]]. Because most of the components, except the PC's [[BIOS]], were publicly available, all Compaq had to do was reverse-engineer the BIOS. The result was a machine with similar performance and lower price than the machines cloned. The use of the term "PC clone" to describe [[IBM PC compatible]] computers fell out of use in the 1990s; the class of machines it now describes are simply called PCs, but the early use of the term "clone" usually implied a higher level of compatibility with the original IBM PC than "PC-Compatible", with (often Taiwanese) clones of the original circuit (and possibly ROMs) the most compatible (in terms of software they would run and hardware tests they would pass), while "legitimate" new designs such as the [[Sanyo]] [[MBC-550]] and [[Data General/One]], while not infringing on copyrights and adding innovations, tended to fail some compatibility tests strongly dependent upon detailed hardware compatibility (such as ability to run ''[[Microsoft Flight Simulator]]'', or any software that bypassed the standard [[Ralf Brown's Interrupt List|software interrupts]] and directly accessed hardware at the expected pre-defined locations, or—in the case of the MBC-550 for example—wrote [[diskettes]] which could not be directly interchanged with standard IBM PCs).

While the term has mostly fallen into commercial disuse, the term ''clone'' for PCs still applies to a PC made to entry-level or above standard (at the time it was made) which bears no commercial branding (e.g., [[Acer Inc.|Acer]], [[Dell]], [[Hewlett-Packard|HP]], IBM). This includes, but is not limited to, PCs assembled by home users or corporate IT departments. (See also [[White box (computer hardware)]].)

There were many [[Nintendo Entertainment System hardware clone]]s due to the popularity and longevity of the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]].

===Hardware remakes===
Examples for hardware remakes include recent home computer remakes.

A special kind of hardware remakes are [[emulator]]s which implement the hardware functionality completely in software. For instance, the [[WinUAE]] emulator software tries to behave exactly like a physical [[Amiga]].