Does A Pentium 4 Need A Weapons License?

WindBourne writes "It appears to be that the U.S. house of Reps. want to classify Pentium 4 and above CPUs as weapons. This would mean that all these will require export licenses. Apparently, they have not heard about that the far east has developed large CPUs as well that are used in beowulf clusters." According to the article, this clause is unlikely to appear in the final version -- but stranger things have happened.

Comments

I tought...

[hummassa]

They were manufactured in Taiwan or someplace... ?! can anyone clarify this to me?

Re:I tought...

[Shoten]

It doesn't matter where they're made, packaged, or whatever. I'll give an example from the "crypto is munitions" situation:

I'm sitting in my office, and the mail guy comes around, dropping a package on my desk. It's the latest version of Checkpoint Firewall-1, which includes a VPN. It's got a big huge sticker on the outside stating that it is illegal to ship this package to an outside country without whatever the exemption is that needs to take place, yadda yadda yadda. But guess where it was shipped from? Ramat Gan, Israel, sent DHL Worldwide Express.

new?

[hennar]

xboxes are already illegal to export(from the US) to certain countries, and Dell also has an export statement when you order

How?

[Quixote]

Given the fact that many P4s are made in Malaysia (among other countries), how exactly is the US going to enforce this?

Re:How would this help?

[Wesley Felter]

VIA is based in Taiwan, but its C3 processors are designed in Austin, TX and manufactured in Taiwan and New York. I wonder how the export laws apply in cases like this.

Re:It's about time they catch up

[jokell82]

Ah you're right. I dunno why I though it was the G3. In any case, you can watch the ad here, labeled "Supercomputer.mov."

Ill concieved

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

The idea of restricting CPU's, or ANY form of computer software for that matter, is completly without justification. States do not require Pentium IVs to launch nuclear missiles or detonate nuclear bombs. These systems were deployed in the seventies with primitive CPUs and little memory or storage space.

Anyone determined to launch a missile, develop a weapons program, or design a new figher jet, is going to get their hands on computing power and software very easily. All that will end up happening is exports will be stifled as Joe bloggs in RougeStateistan won't fork over cash to US companies to pay for that PC he wanted so he could send email, browse the web and type up documents. Instead he'll give it to a european or russian company.

You can see the reason for this. The Pentagon is annoyed that foreign governments are using clusters to build supercomputers. Which means that they could start snooping on Pentagon comms instead of the other way around.

Obviously someone dropped a line like, "Terrorists use Computers to build a-bombs", in the House of Representatives caffeteria. Cue the assembled polititions nodding in agreement and shuffling off to draft a law to "protect the free world".

Just before lunch was the best time to drop this as their next meal was only seconds away. They still can't think past it!

Re:Tech required for building a nuke

[AKAImBatman]

Generally there are two barriers to building a nuke:

1. Obtaining the materials. Uranium is very difficult and expensive to refine. The US has done their best to keep their process for refining out of foreign hands, but someone with a large enough industrial infrastructure could figure it out. One reason why third world countries have to steal U235 is because they lack the necessary infrastructure.

2. The only way to know if a bomb will fission properly (i.e. it will blow up and not just very hot) is to test it. This tends to show up on lots of spy satellites, seismic detection equipment, and radiation monitors. Thus enemies are generally prevented from completing any bomb they might be developing. The only known shortcut to this procedure is to use a computer to simulate the bomb. If the simulator results look good, they know they have a good chance that their bomb would work correctly during a live conflict.

Remember, the biggest trick for third world and terrorists parties is to keep the weapon secret. It's somewhat difficult to stop after you've used it, but if people hear of it ahead of time you're program (and possibly you) is dead.

Re:How would this help?

[onion2k]

Better yet, as I'm a Brit I can make a killing buying these chips and sellng them on to countries that my government doesn't have silly rules against. Exactly the same way Europeans used to buy IBMs and sell them to Russia during the cold war.

1. US government make silly rules.
2. I start import/export co.
3. ???
4. Profit.

Cheers.