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Bush Lightens Supercomputer Export Restrictions
MrZeebo writes "According to a story on Yahoo! News, Bush has finally decided to lift the Cold War-era restrictions on how fast an exported computer can be. Now, computers as fast as 195,000 MTOPS (up from 85,000 MTOPS) can be exported to countries such as Russia, China, and Pakistan."
I think after a long time of several users being modded down for this comment, it still has its meaning:
"Imagine a beowulf cluster of theese..."
The power definetely lies in clustering, who wants to/can control which clusters are built?
Some nice 2.2 Ghz Northwoods add up number crunching power very quickly...
As I read it, the scale at which this is working from is substantially over your average desktop machine. Why not just use a cluster of pc's/macs?
Yes, I am aware that network bottlenecks can be an issue with certain varieties of calculations. I work in a national lab. I administer clusters. But I don't think there is an export restriction on myrinet, or any other high performance network. Not to mention that most of the countries that this applies to don't have a lot of money to work with anyways, so perhaps desktops with fast/gigabit ethernet is more the order of the day.
Not only that, but there are other companies that make supercomputers. Hitachi comes to mind, and I think Fujitsu as well.
Perhaps what they should rather do is not require DOE facilities to buy American unless it truly is the better product.
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
... just bought themselves another couple of years or so worth of computing progress before mainstream small-busines servers fall into the restricted category. [sigh] This is just as stupid as restrictions on encryption software. When the hell are the feds going to learn that the US isn't the world's only source for computing technology (hardware, software, and combinations thereof) and the only thing these export restrictions accomplish is to weaken US companies against foreign competition?
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
I belive this is a good move by the U.S. First of all though getting supercomputers - from the U.S. - was under export restrictions building clusters wasn't because that wouldn't been possible. Another crusial point is that this may have slowed the developement of competanse on supercomputing and certain areas wich requires super computing. Applying the butter-fly-effect to this the U.S. may have been - unwillingly - slowed the economic and democratical development in the countries the restriction applied to. No doubt could such computers be used in design and simulation of nuclear weapons but that is only one branch in wich super computing is put to well - or ill regarding nukes - use.
Look a monkey!
at the start of the Clinton era folks were using what, 486's ?? At that time, certainly the restriction made sense. Really, the restriction idea made sense up until clustering technology fell into the reach of the average joe. Now, though, why bother? Anybody can slap a gaggle of cheapie boxes in a rack and get massive horsepower.
Really, I'd wonder what nation would be dumb enough to spend millions on a turnkey system when they've probably got plenty of homegrown talent that could slap up a Beowoulf system if given enuff parts and electricity.
WEll if you have read the story a few days ago about the guy who just wanted a supercomputer for christmas you would have read that he got his inspiration from those people in kentucky. For those of you who that isn't specific enough for the people from kentucky built a supercompturer out of like 64 athalons and it is ranked in the top 200 in the worlds for processor power. It was also said to be as fast as what cray was selling as there top model in 98. So if a college in kentucky can get the parts and make a supercompturer one would not doubt a country like china's ability. So as long as you can string a bunch of everday processors together and get a supercomputer I don't see the need for the ban at all. Except the fact that China is a one of the worst violators of human rights on the planet and is able to take anything good and use it for bad. So I'd love to help China by giving it the ability to aquire the same supercomptuter that a U.S. company could but I have to say to myself will it help the grow out of the economic problems they have or will it be used for evil.
Whose idea was it to put Windows servers on the net in the first place, anyway?
Specially SGI, which is the biggest seller in the Defense and Federal markets. I'm sure that, despite the economic problems in Russia and China, they will save some money to buy some "big iron" from them. I don't think they will base some of their strategic systems in PC-clusters, not even if they run Linux.
First Bush tightens the restrictions on crypto and puts wiretapping laws into effect to make it harder to secure data in that way, and then he makes it easier for other countries to break our weakened crypto! What the fuck is he doing?!
"Washington 19 Oct 99 Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer called on Gov. George W. Bush to reverse his position calling for an ease on supercomputer export controls."
Googling around, I see a lot of right-wing wackiness attacking both Bush Jr. and Clinton for proposing (and actually doing, respectively) the lifting of supercomputer restrictions. One 1999 report called "RED FLAGS OF TREASON" suggests that China is pretending to know more about supercomputers than it really does, so that the gullible Americans will let down their guard and sell them the supercomputers they can't make themselves.
Now that Apple sells "supercomputer" laptops and Cringely is writing about building a clustered supercomputer in his garage, the restrictions of the 80s and 90s seem a little silly...
Right on!
Why is this flaimbait? I guess "flaimbait" should be changed to "disagrees with popular opinion".
Believe me, I'm plenty tired of this "fuckstick" too, and I'm glad I didn't vote for him.
Who is the USA to say who can and can't have knowledge? Supercomputers, Nuclear bombs, etc.?
Is the US God? I think not. If someone in India is smart enough to figure out how to make a nuclear bomb, who are we to say anything against it?
Anyway, your post is right on the mark, and I agree completely.
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.
Is the US God?
No it isn't. But the responses to this are enlightening. I remember how there was a great clamor to boycott and embargo DeClerk's South Africa. Anyone who had business interests there had to divest themselves. It was the "moral" thing to do. Divestiture was the same as saying, "We don't like how you run your country and we refuse to have anything to do with you." If a company or university didn't divest itself, it was ostracized and or boycotted until it did.
So for years, the US has had a policy regarding the exportation of certain kinds of technology to certain kinds of countries. These certain kinds of countries have a history of slaughtering thier own peasants and enslaving smaller countries. It was as much a "moral" statement as a political one.
Unfortunately, these countries are on Noam Chomsky's list of Approved Nations so people like you oppose opposing them.
But the responses to this are enlightening.
How about this response?:
The "certain countries" you mention are often no worse, civil-rights-wise than many of the countries we have actively sold arms to. The US banned exporting high tech to them because of their way of government, not their way of life. Communism was threatening democracy, and we reacted by attempting to cripple it in any way possible. The foriegn policies of the US have never had anything to do with human rights. We only prop up that old cover whenever it's convenient. I'm glad we've finally stopped pretending we care.
If you fall off a building, go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will be like hey, free dummy