back to article US govt bans Intel from selling chips to China's supercomputer boffins

The US government has blocked Intel from shipping high-end Xeon processors to China's supercomputer builders – and other American chip giants are banned, too. Intel confirmed to The Register last night it was refused permission to sell the chips to the Middle Kingdom's defense labs and other parts of its supercomputing …

  1. King Jack
    Pint

    'Merica destroying itself from within

    Can't wait for the Chinese to make their own processors and for them to become the dominant force in the market. Intel can then thank Uncle Sam for destroying their business.

  2. Crazy Operations Guy

    Since those chips are already made in China...

    I don't think it'd take too long before we start seeing "Entel Zeon Fi" chips coming out of the same fab as Intel's...

    1. Lusty

      Re: Since those chips are already made in China...

      I was thinking that. You can only export them once they are actually in America, surely.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Holmes

        Re: Since those chips are already made in China...

        Maybe my info is outdated, but my understanding is that the Intel wafer fab in China (Dalian) is a 65nm plant, mostly used to make motherboard chips. If they are producing any Xeons, they would have to be 9-year old models or older. Not very likely.

    2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: Since those chips are already made in China...

      These models are not. These models along with special purpose CPUs like Cavium, radiation resistant PPC, etc are the reasons why there is still fab capacity in the USA and Eu.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Since those chips are already made in China...

      No, this is all about delaying a specific consignment of chips destined for a scheduled upgrade to China's (the world's) most powerful computer. Someone lurking within the US gov. bureaucracy appears to have decided that the country needs a propaganda boost and that the best opportunity to achieve this is by sabotaging the Chinese while attempting to grab a moment at the top of the supercomputer tree. Pathetic really.

      Shirely EVERYONE can see this!... even the beeb seems to have managed to get the tone about right: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32247532

  3. Grikath

    I wonder...

    The sheer ...stupidity.. of this makes you wonder if this is not a side effect of a deeper power struggle somewhere in the mazelike layers of US bureaucracy.

    Ah well, if the US ticks off China hard enough the chinese can always simply decide to no longer fund their pet hobby. How much did the US owe China nowadays again?

    1. Ben Liddicott

      Re: I wonder...

      You owe the bank $100,000, you have a problem.

      You owe the bank $100,000,000,000, the bank has a problem.

      The US national debt is a problem for China not the USA.

      1. h4rm0ny

        Re: I wonder...

        >>"The US national debt is a problem for China not the USA."

        Kind of. I'm familiar with the joke about owing the bank a million dollars and it's still funny and still contains truth. But it's not that simple. Both the USA and China have constraints on them due to the size of the debt. China can't just call it all in and sink the US economy without hurting themselves (and they wouldn't be able to anyway, due to all the safe-guards and options built into such loans). But whilst they can't choke the USA to death, they can put the squeeze on in any number of ways. The USA should take care with this.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I wonder...

          But whilst they can't choke the USA to death, they can put the squeeze on in any number of ways. The USA should take care with this.

          They already are by initiating moves to remove the automatic default to US dollars as energy and reserve currency. For a start, they can now trade in their own currency with the Worldbank, and the last energy deal they did with Russia didn't involve a single dollar. With that, they are chipping away at two of the 3 pillars that keep the US dollar afloat.

          They won't cause the US economy to fall, that would be a case of MAD (mutually assured destruction), but they sure are moving to lessen US influence.

          You may want to look up on Youtube "Day of the dollar" by the Dutch channel VPRO. It's subtitled in English where required.

    2. Fungus Bob
      FAIL

      Re: I wonder...

      "How much did the US owe China nowadays again?"

      More than it would be worth to collect as the act of collecting would destroy China's biggest market. Not saying China won't ever try, but it'll be fun to watch the footgun competition between the US and China...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I wonder...

        This news might have something to do with that debt. I'm also wondering if China is not in favor of this blacklist as well. Remember how X amount of cotton was shipped to China from the USA to be fabricated, then sold back to the USA? Maybe this is ultimately to stop the fabrication of the chips in the USA, to start fabrication in China. It would yield China a higher profit margin off the USA (yet again).

        I seriously doubt this is anything other than a primer to shift currency to China to make some dues on our trillions we owe them. It's one thing when it's 2 or 3 players, but when an entire industry is cut off, then it looks like we are yet again exporting our number 1 export...jobs!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I wonder...

        If China wished to annoy the US financial system, they should oscillate their Buy and Sell with a period equal to the policy adjustment reaction time of the US. Things would be bouncing off the stops after some number of cycles.

        Canada should have done exactly this in their Softwood Lumber dispute with the USA. Freeze exports, wait, flood market, wait, repeat. Resonate their wood market until they beg for mercy.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I wonder...

          If China wished to annoy the US financial system, they should oscillate their Buy and Sell with a period equal to the policy adjustment reaction time of the US. Things would be bouncing off the stops after some number of cycles.

          Canada should have done exactly this in their Softwood Lumber dispute with the USA. Freeze exports, wait, flood market, wait, repeat. Resonate their wood market until they beg for mercy.

          That's the problem with nations plagues by ethics - don't forget that whatever markets do, it eventually ends up with the little man in the street paying the price for it (heaven forbid a banker/trader will ever be held responsible - the system would collapse overnight).

          So many opportunities, none of which are taken because they're actually not really the decent thing to do. As far as I can detect that's not a US affliction, but it is possible that other nations at some point decide that being Mr Nice Guy only means they get shafted yet again. There is only so much abuse people can take, and they're seriously stretching it thin. With a debt clocking upwards, it is a time bomb - that's why I see the likes of China slowly divesting. Slowly, because doing it fast will drop the value, but I would be interested to see monthly figures of overall foreign holdings. Only the debt keeps this up, otherwise I suspect it would be trending downwards pretty sharpish.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It isn't "debt" in the sense many people seem to think

      China doesn't hold an IOU from the US, they hold treasury bills and corporate bonds. You can't demand immediate payment on that any more than your bank can call you up and demand you pay off the full amount of your mortgage tomorrow.

      The only leverage China has is to quit buying more bonds and other US assets in the future, and over the years as the bonds mature they will hold less and less. They aren't the only market interested in US debt, so while it might raise interest rates a bit, it isn't going to be the end of the world for the US as some people seem to think.

      China would have to do something with the money they would otherwise hold in US dollars. Are they going to hold Euros? Doesn't sound too smart to me until they get their Greek house in order. Are they going to hold pounds? There aren't enough pounds in circulation for that. Are they going to hold gold? Same problem. I suppose they could waste their excess money building megacities where no one lives and other malinvestment...oh wait, they're already doing that or else they'd have even more money they needed to do something with!

      1. Robert Helpmann??
        Childcatcher

        Re: It isn't "debt" in the sense many people seem to think

        The only leverage China has is to quit buying more bonds and other US assets...

        T-bills can be cashed in early, but there is a penalty. On the face of it, this would seem to hurt only China to do this as they would take a loss, but it could actually hurt the US too if enough of them were cashed in at the same time. Both they and corporate bonds may be resold which may be used to drive down prices of both. This would in turn weaken the US' ability to raise funds.

        These are two fairly simplistic examples of what China might do. That they do not would seem to indicate that they do not view it in their best interests to do so, not that they do not have any tools in the bag besides not purchasing more assets in the future.

        These two economies have become intertwined over time. Many would argue that this is a good thing in as much as it proves a disincentive to start a shooting war. Plus, lots of people on both sides get rich. Don't knock it.

  4. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Excellent

    Should lead to a whole new set of breakthroughs as china invents its own line of chips instead of just buying Xeons.

    Like when we banned US companies from launching satelites on Chinese rockets and so the chinese built their own satelites.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Excellent

        Or the embargos on Israel and S Africa which forced them to develop their own technology industries.

        It is ironic that after blaming Japan dumping cheap technology for the decline of US industry you then try the opposite plan to destroy chinese innovation.

      2. h4rm0ny

        Re: Excellent

        Maybe a Chinese consortium would like to put in a bid for AMD. The company has always had a lot of talent and has always suffered through lack of cash. They would also make an astronomically better starting point for a chip designer than starting from scratch (or trying to re-implement Intel technology without assistance).

    2. Captain DaFt

      Re: Excellent

      Well done, sir or madam, you called it:

      http://m.forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2486427

    3. Crazy Operations Guy

      Re: Excellent

      They already have: the Godson / Loongson chips[1]. They even built a pretty decent Super out of them too.

      [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson

      [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawning_Information_Industry#Dawning_6000

    4. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      Re: Excellent

      Should lead to a whole new set of breakthroughs as china invents its own line of chips instead of just buying Xeons.

      Like when we banned US companies from launching satelites on Chinese rockets and so the chinese built their own satelites.

      It's very nice of them to stimulate other economies, really. They denied Russia decent computers, so the Russians became *very* good at efficiently eking the last erg of power out of what they had. They denied the Japanese a sufficient allocation of IP4 addresses, so they are now over a DECADE ahead in the use of IPv6.

      Well done, very generous of them.

      </sarcasm>

  5. James Loughner
    Thumb Down

    But you forget

    America has all knowledge. Thus none can possibly duplicate what America can do. And it owns all the patents. That is sure to stop them........

  6. wx666z
    WTF?

    WTF?

    I'm not even in IT, and I can see this is stupid. If the Chinese don't have cpu fab already (they probably do)

    they certainly will sooner rather than later. And then they will compete with us. Intel will lose sales and typically reduce employment. Eldest son worked for Intel in Chandler. AZ. Good gig...

    1. Antonymous Coward
      Gimp

      Re: WTF?

      ...

      What the hell are you doing here?

      You don't belong here,

      you don't belong here....

  7. David Webb

    Oh dear

    So, the US blocks China from buying high end Xeon (and naturally, block North Korea). China retaliates and brings out awesome chips, as fast (or faster) than Intel, in both the server and consumer market, for 1/2 the price, with the US unable to say "yo, don't ship them high grade chips to North Korea".

    Let's face it, everything is made in China these days, so no one will think twice about buying much cheaper x86's from China.

    Next up, US blocks China from importing their chips into the US because they are a threat to Intel.

    1. Antonymous Coward
      Pint

      Re: Oh dear

      "China retaliates and brings out awesome chips, as fast (or faster) than Intel, in both the server and consumer market, for 1/2 the price... "

      ...but without Intel® AMT/vPro™, the CIA/NSA's "magic screwdrivers", etc. presumably. More of the "blowback" they're referring to? Awesome. Can't come fast enough.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Oh dear

      In the 80/90s the US blocked Toshiba from importing LCD screens to the US to protect the US LCD screen industry .

      Instead Toshiba built and imported entire laptops - how is the US laptop industry doing these days?

  8. earplugs

    Israel can sell Xeons to China without any competition now

    Next step to destroy US tech industry, make it illeal to sell to the world's biggest customer! Only Israel is allowed to do that.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sanctions Reductio Ad Absurdum

    In the same way that freely accessible resources like petroleum can become a curse for the countries that inherit them, sanctions and other forms of deprivation force the target country to adapt in order to survive.

    In the years ahead plenty of books will be written surveying the long-term damage to American competitiveness caused by the culture of sanctions. Witness the apparently recent realization by the U.S. defense establishment that apparently Russia didn't just sit around and whine when hit with economic isolation but instead developed its own technologies.

    The situation in Iran is similar - decades of sanctions have forced the population's creative energy into developing asymmetric technologies that don't require money or imported materials, namely cyberweapons. The tools we read about in the Snowden docs are just the starting point for whatever digital weapons and doctrine are now being developed domestically in Iran.

    We ain't seen nothing yet of this blowback.

  10. martinusher Silver badge

    They're still at it

    Back in the 80s I ran into several examples of this idiocy. One of them was restricting the export of Motorola 68000 processors which at the time were being made in Scotland. Another was making it difficult to buy US made microwave gear -- no problem, just get it from Japan. Perhaps the most ludicrous was the requirement to get a US export license to move Japanese made memory packs from England to Belgium (the UK authorities, as now, always were enthusiastic brown nosers of the Americans). That was also the time when they used to prosecute companies for moving their minicomputers between offices without a (US) export license.

    The people behind this idiocy are a consistent thread, the same names pop up over and over again, be it working on self-defeating embargoes, planning invasions of middle east countries or just generally creating mahem. They're a nuisance but because they've always worked behind the scenes as policy advisers and the like they're not subject to the open scrutiny that political figures are.

    Anyway, that's all we need -- give the Chinese the incentive to invest in high performance processor design. I'd guess these Cold Warrior retreads don't realize that Chinese people are quite capable of doing this (since a lot of their countrymen are already doing so in the US).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: They're still at it

      The big thing the US bully boy has is control over the world's banking system. The rest of the world needs to pull their head out of their ass and fix that.

      Signed: a sickened and concerned Merkin.

      1. Charles 9

        Re: They're still at it

        How? Bad as it looks now, the US is STILL a huge sight better than any other country on offer. Including China, or they would've ALREADY demonstrated self-sufficiency (they carry a cultural impetus) which proves they can successfully cut off the US.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: They're still at it

          Bad as it looks now, the US is STILL a huge sight better than any other country on offer.

          Only if you don't look past the illusions. Hint: national debt. The US is a grade A example of the "too big to fail" principle.

        2. P. Lee

          Re: They're still at it

          >Bad as it looks now, the US is STILL a huge sight better than any other country on offer. Including China, or they would've ALREADY demonstrated self-sufficiency

          Unless there was no need to, until now.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: They're still at it

          >How? Bad as it looks now, the US is STILL a huge sight better than any other country on offer.

          Oh look another American who has never spent more than a week in another developed country. You know like the vast majority of them (coming from an American who lived in Europe for several years). America might be better for some things (or even most, no place like home) but a huge sight better don't think so. American exceptionalism is a steaming pile of horse shit propaganda that does more to undermine our own security than anything else.

      2. GrumpyOldBloke

        Control over the world's banking system

        > The rest of the world needs to pull their head out of their ass and fix that.

        Already in play: BRICS New Development Bank. Islam also has an alternative banking model, one that does not levy compounding interest on loans. What in the West is often framed as a clash of cultures is really a war about the right to create money and levy a never ending burden of compounding interest on its use. We send our young men off with patriotic fervour to fight for our enslavement and the enslavement of future generations to a handful of wealthy banking families in Europe and the US. The US is as much a victim of privately issued debt based fiat money as the rest of us and its schizophrenic actions are not only those of a global thug but also the desperate flailing about of a drowning person attempting to find anything they can to pay off one more days debt and avoid foreclosure.

        1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

          Re: Control over the world's banking system

          Quite so, GrumpyOldBloke, and how long before IS, and the likes of IS entities, concentrate their activities on that handful of wealthy banking families and their HQs into the enslaving of future generations?

          Whenever the IRA targeted the City of London, things changed practically virtually overnight ....... One bomb... £1bn devastation

          And don't forget that Uncle Sam openly supported on their home soil, the funding of the IRA. They certainly did nothing to stop it, that's for sure, so what does that say about a supposed ally and the "special UKGBNI relationship" which is touted as existing and vital?

          Who and/or what is the real and virtual enemy for engagement?

        2. DavCrav

          Re: Control over the world's banking system

          " Islam also has an alternative banking model, one that does not levy compounding interest on loans."

          No it doesn't. So-called Islamic Banking is verbose bullshit wrapped around the same old model. "We don't charge interest on our mortgages, we just part-own your house and you pay rent on it. What's that, you say you end up paying exactly the same as if we lent you then money? Pure coincidence!"

  11. Mark 85

    I guess I should hang my head in shame, but I'm in agreement with Hayden... former NSA boss... I need to wash my hands, I feel so dirty about this.

  12. DerekCurrie
    Angel

    #MySmartGovernment

    I don't get to say that often! Thank you #MySmartGovernment.

    China: Criminal Nation. Boohoo to yoo.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: #MySmartGovernment

      You forgot #sarcasm..

  13. x 7

    Considering that these chips are probably intended for nuclear warhead simulation, or other military research e.g. submarine screw design, a better idea would have been to allow the sale but ensure the chips are sufficiently degraded to give false results.

    Coupled with Concordski-style technical deception the mod edit - Chinese could have been led up a total blind alley

    mod note: Racially-loaded terms for other nationalities are not acceptable here.

    1. NomNomNom

      yes because deliberately selling faulty chips won't cause a business to totally lose its reputation

    2. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      a better idea would have been to allow the sale but ensure the chips are sufficiently degraded to give false results.

      Err - it's Intel you're talking about. That occasionally happens even by accident. :)

      1. x 7

        @ Fred Flintstone

        thats exactly why I suggested it. If Intel can do it by accident, then surely they can design-flaw deliberately?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          @ Fred Flintstone

          thats exactly why I suggested it. If Intel can do it by accident, then surely they can design-flaw deliberately?

          No. I suggest you look up what happened as a result of that bug - you don't even want such a problem out there by accident, and CERTAINLY not deliberate: it's pretty much a certainty that it will eventually come back to bite you in the posterior. I agree that that is not an argument that will as much as slow down a politician, but those of us who have to wrestle with the inevitable fallout (and blowback) have been there before.

    3. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Or you could sell them perfectly working chips so they don't develop their own expertise.

      They waste the supercomputer time to develop expensive nuclear weapons that they can never use and gradually bankrupt their economy - cf USSR

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Q:

    Where are those chips made in the first place?

    1. Charles 9

      Re: Q:

      In the US IIRC. Intel's foreign foundries are for older, less important chips.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Charles 9

        Re: Q:

        Why would it be a boon for Microsoft? Do they still develop Windows and Windows applications for POWER?

  15. Frank N. Stein

    Lenovo now owns IBM's Server hardware business, don't they? And IBM has been in bed with Lenovo since they bought their PC business. There's no mention of IBM not being able to sell the Power CPU to Lenovo, so all theses blocked Uni's have to do is go to Lenovo in their own country to get Power CPU chips without missing anything from Intel. The machine architecture will change, Intel loses revenue streams, and China isn't prevented from building Supercomputers.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      But IBM's chip business has gone to GF, not Lenovo.

  16. h4rm0ny

    This is so stupid it's almost funny.

    Scratch that. I actually laughed out loud at this story. It's a gallows laugh - the depression at the short-sighted stupidity of this will settle in shortly.

    The USA is still fighting from the idea that they're on top and can keep others down. That idea is out of date and the actions that would make sense from that point of view now translate into alienating near-equal partners and making enemies of them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This is so stupid it's almost funny.

      The thing with these embargoes is, I'm sure they benefit those who prescribe them (politicians, lobbyists) in some way or another. They are however, rather counterproductive for their economy at large and their population, as they are starting to realise with the Cuba fiasco.

      Another case in point: a company I used to work for had their support centre in the US. At the same time, lots of their operations were based in embargoed countries (Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Lybia, etc., etc.) Because of some law or another, when a support request originating from one of those countries was received, they just refused to process it and simply rejected all further communication. Not exactly conducive to great support and getting operations back online, so in the end they just moved the support centre out of the US, with about a hundred people losing their jobs.

      But politicians and (ahem) "policy-makers" live in a world of their own.

  17. NormDP

    Stupid on all counts. They'll get them anyway; and, if they don't, they'll make their own.

  18. Zot

    Just break the 14nm transistor size minimum

    Then you can forget Intel.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apparently they can still buy them

    The ban only applies to that specific supercomputing project, but according to the Commerce department, it is not a China-wide ban. When asked what prevented the supercomputing project from purchasing the chips from another Chinese company, the Commerce department noted that this would be "illegal".

    Now, I'm not a genius, or even an economist, but in what Universe does it make sense to make a move like this that can only end in trade war, when it doesn't even accomplish the goal of restricting the use of this technology for the project in question?

    It would take all of about 3 minutes to create a corporation that legally purchases these parts and keeps them in "inventory" inside the TianHe chassis. This is how just-in-time inventory works in the US anyway.. at Dell for example, they don't take delivery of the part until it's removed from the vendor-owned cage inside the Dell manufacturing area, or at least that's how it worked 10 years ago.

  20. Morten Bjoernsvik

    Rather add nsaware to the chip

    Among those billions of transistors US gowernment may add nsaware to produce faults, disable features, overheat, snoop etc. A terrible idea. The world has moved on since the cold war area.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why ?

    There are nine uses of supercomputers that quickly come to mind:

    Recreating the Big Bang, Understanding earthquakes, Folding Proteins, Mapping the blood stream, Modeling swine flu, Testing nuclear weapons, Forecasting hurricanes, Predicting climate change, Building brains

    I will admit that at least seven of them have military applications.

    But I would guess is that 'merica is blocking the sale for fear of the last one, because not enough though has gone into the far reaching consequences of this decision. Short term it may delay things, but long term it is not a good idea for 'merica. The rest of the world will get dirt cheap processors.

    1. DavCrav

      Re: Why ?

      "Building brains. [...] But I would guess is that 'merica is blocking the sale for fear of the last one, because not enough though has gone into the far reaching consequences of this decision."

      In order for politicians to think abut brain building, they would first need to find an example of one.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    US citizens are kept in the dark

    What I find funny is that this is not news worthy in the US. Or it is censored.

    http://edition.cnn.com/tech

    http://www.nytimes.com/pages/technology/index.html

    Americans obviously do not need to know what it's government is doing.

  23. crayon

    "It has become a defining feature of American policy and only last week the former head of the NSA warned about just this kind of processor embargo."

    The former head of the NSA is worried about not being able to sell backdoored CPUs to China.

    "The big thing the US bully boy has is control over the world's banking system. The rest of the world needs to pull their head out of their ass and fix that."

    China has already made moves in the right direction. The US and EU unilateral sanctions against Iran (and various other countries) have prompted China to settle trade using each other's respectively currency instead of using USDs.

    The soon to be launched AIIB is a direct response to the US/EU refusal to allow China a larger voting right in both the IMF and the World Bank, even though in the wake of the 2009 financial crisis China were asked to pony up some more cash to bolster the reserves. Despite intense US pressure on its lackeys not to join the AIIB, the UK, France, Germany and most major European countries have joined, along with most major countries in Asia-Pacific (with the exception of Japan who singularly succumbed to US pressure).

    While China is busy connecting the world with its so called "One Belt, One Road" initiative which aims to create the necessary infrastructure and transport links to facilitate trade from China to Africa by sea and from China to Europe by land, the US is busy connecting the world with military bases.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Two are already playing this game

      Best opening up of the macro scale this game is being played at. China played the last round by blocking export of rare earths in 2010-2011. There are plenty of other rare earth sources in world, but they did not have the developed recovery and refinery resources to go with them since the Chinese had locked up that market. US can play with regulatory changes. Same sort of deal with this particular run of the good/fast XEON chips. Chinese haven't ponied up the multi-billions of $/remimbi and spent the multiple years to build fab plants capable of the rare THz chips. It was chasing that technology leadership that got through to the USSR to decide to drop out. If this isn't a good strategy, why is China playing it?

  24. John Savard

    Some Considerations

    From the story, it appears that a court was simply enforcing an existing legislated ban on exports for military uses. Courts go by what the law says, and so if the consequences are bad, politicians will have to amend the law; it's not fair to criticize the body that directly imposed the specific sanctions.

    However, shortly after I read this, I found out from a Google search that China was coming out with a supercomputer which consumed 1.1 megawatts to provide one petaflop of computing power, using homegrown Shenwei 1600 processors, made on a 65nm processs. I was amazed that they reacted so quickly in the expected fashion to this!

    Then I searched for more information, took a closer look at the results, and found that this story was from November of 2011. Apparently the processor may use the MIPS instruction set, although its internals are said to be based on studying a DEC Alpha.

    This means China indeed has a capacity for going homegrown, but also that it would try this without our encouragement - and that they are sufficiently behind in technology that sanctions will still slow them down.

  25. jsmith405

    I say boycott Intel completely. Since they began invading our privacy with their secret 3G chip and embedded operating system, we should stop using their products. Go with AMD. If we slam a large hammer on Intel, than AMD will be afraid to pull such a stunt against the people. Clearly Intel is now in the pockets of the elite assholes.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    wrong

    no nervous worried for such or anyx, do things not nervous, worried about things, idts

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No such thing as forgiving or not about merica, just merica needs to be forgived. you are simply stopping your own bully bs, others do any is ok

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