I have been thinking about what software the dealers use to diagnose etc their cars?

Do they have computers or do they have fancy laptop type things to do their coding?
I have seen one type of computer before at a specalist garage, they used autologic, which looked like it ran specifically on that type of hardware (a tablet computerr type thing)

is it possible to *ahem* obtain the dealer software? The bmw tech manuals and catalogues are common, is the dealer software the same?