
Testing a Chinese x86 CPU: A Deep Dive into Zen-Based Hygon Dhyana Processors - vanburen
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15493/hygon-dhyana-reviewed-chinese-x86-cpus-amd
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walrus01
I really don't see the point to US federal export control regulations on high-
end x86-64 processors.

If somebody in a foreign adversary country (Russia? China?) were determined to
build a really powerful supercomputer using the latest and great Intel or AMD
CPUs, without sourcing them all in one batch officially, with sufficient
financial resources and shell entities spread out around the world they
absolutely could purchase enough processors by smurfing. Have dozens of small
entities purchase small enough batches to fly under the radar.

[https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smurf.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smurf.asp)

Or just set up a fake cloud/VM/web hosting operation in a friendly country and
buy thousands of Supermicro, Quanta or similar barebones servers with CPUs
already installed, and then divert them.

It's just as futile as trying to stop people from buying high tech things in
Dubai and shipping them to Iran.

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brutt
It buys time for three letter agency to counteract bad intentions.

~~~
walrus01
Based on the number of Chinese supercomputers in the public top500 list I
don't see any effectiveness to it.

[https://www.top500.org/lists/2019/11/](https://www.top500.org/lists/2019/11/)

~~~
skylanh
The top Chinese based supercomputer requires twice the power and 6 times the
number of cores.

The next requires three times the power and 3 times the cores to produce 60%
of the number two supercomputer.

Seems like it's a case of "increase operational friction".

~~~
walrus01
Compared to the amount of megawatt-hours being spent right now in China on
bitcoin mining and cryptocurrency mining operations, the friction of having a
slightly less efficient and more space hungry supercomputer seems slight...
Considering the resources of the government entities that own and operate
them.

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AtlasBarfed
"Starting in 2015, AMD diligently and proactively briefed the Department of
Defense, the Department of Commerce and multiple other agencies within the
U.S. Government before entering into the joint ventures. AMD received no
objections whatsoever from any agency to the formation of the joint ventures
or to the transfer of technology – technology which was of lower performance
than other commercially available processors. In fact, prior to the formation
of the joint ventures and the transfer of technology, the Department of
Commerce notified AMD that the technology proposed was not restricted or
otherwise prohibited from being transferred. Given this clear feedback, AMD
moved ahead with the joint ventures."

Is this basically a "give us a big fat contract or pay us to not do this"
request that the US Government passed on?

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blackhaz
I wonder if anything more is known on the Sunway SW26010 260C 1.45GHz
processor which powers world's 3rd best supercomputer:

[https://www.top500.org/system/178764](https://www.top500.org/system/178764)

