OEM is the abbrevation for Original Equipment Manufacturer. The following survey tries to show the relations between the original laptop manufacturers and their derivated brand names. Please note these relations seem to change continously and are difficult to detect. So this survey is only an estimation.
| Brand -> OEM | AlphaTop | Arima |
ASUS |
Clevo |
Compal |
First International Computer, Inc. - FIC |
Inventec | LG | NATCOMP | Quanta |
Samsung |
Wistron |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acer |
X | X | ||||||||||
| Apple Computer Inc. |
X | X | ||||||||||
| BenQ |
X | |||||||||||
| Compaq |
X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| DELL |
X | X | X | X | ||||||||
| Fujitsu-Siemens |
X | X | X | |||||||||
| Gateway |
X | |||||||||||
| Hitachi |
X | X | ||||||||||
| Hewlett-Packard - HP |
X | X | ||||||||||
| Lenovo (former IBM) |
X | X | X | |||||||||
| MaxSelect |
X | X | ||||||||||
| Mitac |
X | |||||||||||
| NEC |
X | X | X | |||||||||
| Sony |
X | X | ||||||||||
| Toshiba |
X | X | (X) | |||||||||
| Zepto |
X |
Sources [modified by WH]: CT(http://www.heise.de/ct/) 17/2002 p. 135., Heise Online 14.01.2004(http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jow-14.01.04-000/).
How to Identify Laptop and Notebook Manufacturers
Sometimes it's difficult to know what manufacturer has built the machine or parts of it actually. Linux provides different means to gather information about the manufacturer.
FCC ID
Besides the means provided by Linux, often the FCC ID lets you retrieve information about your original laptop or notebook manufacturer.
Linux Tool: lspci
The command lspci reveals information, which you may look up in the
PCI Vendor and Device Lists.
Linux Tool: dmidecode
To read out the information provided by the Desktop Management Interface - DMI, you
may use
dmidecode(http://www.nongnu.org/dmidecode/) made by Alan Cox and Jean Delvare. Here
is an example for an ACER TravelMate 430. The command dmidecode reveals
COMPAL as the manufacturer of the Base Board and the Chassis (note: serial numbers are obfuscated):
[..]
Handle 0x0001
DMI type 1, 25 bytes.
System Information
Manufacturer: Acer
Product Name: TravelMate 430
Version: TravelMate 430
Serial Number: LXT0000000000000000000
UUID: 7642065F-E741-1D5A-740B-000000000000
Wake-up Type: Power Switch
Handle 0x0002
DMI type 2, 8 bytes.
Base Board Information
Manufacturer: COMPAL
Product Name: BBQ12
Version: Null
Serial Number: 0123456789AB
Handle 0x0003
DMI type 3, 17 bytes.
Chassis Information
Manufacturer: COMPAL
Type: Other
Lock: Not Present
Version: N/A
Serial Number: None
Asset Tag: ................................
Boot-up State: Safe
Power Supply State: Safe
Thermal State: Safe
Security Status: None
OEM Information: 0x00001234
[..]
Comparing Accessories: e.g. Battery
Another method is to look for models which are constructed in the same way, e.g. which are using the same accessories. For example laptops or notebooks which use a compatible battery model.