[Beowulf] US bans Intel Xeon exports to China's Supercomputer centers

[Lux, Jim (337C)]

As someone who deals in export controls all the time (and thankfully new rules for Category XV, spacecraft)  there's a classic thing I was taught by our export control experts:

You all (meaning us on the list in this case) are engineers and scientists, and expect that there is a set of principles and rules, and if you understand the rules, you can apply a straightforward process to determine whether what you want to do falls inside or outside the rules.  This is not true. Export control rules are political. Do not expect them to make sense, be internally consistent, etc.  Each and every decision is made on a case by case basis, and a license application that flew through yesterday will be blanket refused today, or vice versa.

That is, sometimes rules are made/changed to "send a diplomatic message" (sort of like those "Action X was unhelpful" statements from diplomats, when what they really mean is "I really wish you hadn't done X")

As a practical matter, the reason those processors (and, for instance, the Motorola 68000 some decades ago) are on the list is that the "other people" don't have the demonstrated capacity to design their own.  As soon as that capability is demonstrated, then there's a move to get it removed from the commerce control lists.

There is an exception: classic munitions: missiles, weapons,etc.  They tend to stay on the list forever, because there, the issue is not one of information and know-how proliferation (Technical Data, in export control speak), but of the actual articles being transferred.  You don't want to be shipping bullets to your enemy.



Jim Lux

From: Beowulf [mailto:beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org] On Behalf Of Prentice Bisbal
Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2015 1:44 PM
To: beowulf at beowulf.org
Subject: Re: [Beowulf] US bans Intel Xeon exports to China's Supercomputer centers

It's also funny because this will just increase the haste with which China develops their own processors to compete with US-sourced ones, which, in theory could hasten the decline of the US economy.

Another case of unintended consequences from US foreign policy? Only time will tell.

--
Prentice



On 04/09/2015 12:47 AM, Jeff Johnson wrote:
Such a ban is kind of humorous when you consider that a large percentage of Xeon production goes to China where they are integrated into systems built by the contract manufacturers (Foxconn, Quanta, etc).

On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 9:05 PM, Kilian Cavalotti <kilian.cavalotti.work at gmail.com<mailto:kilian.cavalotti.work at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi all,

According to http://www.vrworld.com/2015/04/07/usa-shocks-intel-ban-on-china-xeon-supercomputers/,
the US government has placed the 4 major China Supercomputer Centers
on the "Denial List," which prevents "high technology from the USA" to
be sold to these sites. On claims that they are believed to be engaged
in activities related to nuclear explosives.

I guess it means no Phi-based Tianhe-3 in the near future, and a clear
path for China to fund the development of their own lines of
processors.

If that's confirmed, that would be a big loss for Intel, both in the
short and longer terms. That after Summit, that looks like a lot to
take in.

Cheers,
--
Kilian
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--
------------------------------
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Co-Founder
Aeon Computing

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