> but the '80s, '90s, and early '00s had an explosion of tiny hardware and software startups Most of them used intel, motorola or zilog tech at some capacity.

> but the '80s, '90s, and early '00s had an explosion of tiny hardware and software startups Most of them used intel, motorola or zilog tech at some capacity. Most of them with a clock used dallas semiconductor tech; Many of them with serial ports also used either intel or maxim/analog devices chips. Many of those implementations are patented, and their inner designs were generically, "trade secrets". Most of the clones and rebrands were actually licensed (most of 80x51 microcontrollers and z80 chips are licensed tech, not original). As a tinkerer, you'd receive a black box (sometimes literally) with a series of pins and a datasheet. If anything, i'd say you have much more choice today than in the 80s/90's.