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Iran Builds Supercomputer From Banned AMD Parts
Stony Stevenson writes with the news that, despite a ban on US PC hardware, Iranian techs have built an enormously powerful supercomputer from 216 AMD processors. The Linux-cluster machine has a 'theoretical peak performance of 860 gig-flops'. "The disclosure, made in an undated posting on [the University of] Amirkabir's Web site, brought an immediate response Monday from AMD, which said it has never authorized shipments of products either directly or indirectly to Iran or any other embargoed country."
The company is still a US company, and is required to obey US law regardless of whether the chip fab is in the US, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Germany, or Ireland. I've never seen an AMD chip fabbed in China.
The ban on business with Iran goes well beyond military exports. It's a ban on business, period. It's called an embargo. It's to economically punish Iran for being enemies to the US and its allies.
In case anyone hasn't noticed the course of the last 300 years of warfare, it's not the size of your population or the fealty of a few princes in neighboring cities that make a country powerful any longer. It's your economy. The size of your fleet of ships, tanks, planes, subs, helicopters, jeeps, and other vehicles is one key. The logistical support of modern electronics and a worldwide communications network is another these days. A distribution network for troops, equipment, and supplies is a third. The money to keep a standing army well trained is important. The more business you do with enemies or potential enemies, the stronger they can become militarily. All this has been the trend since at least the Industrial Revolution. It became a stark truth nobody could deny in the World Wars, especially WW II.
This is why so many military people are interested in the US's levels of trade with China. We're not in a very friendly state with them, although relations are fairly solid. We send them more money every year, though, and their year-over-year growth in military spending is starting to closely follow the growth in the US/China trade imbalance. American consumers are supporting the Chinese military, and if they ever decide to assert that power against the US, it'll be those DVD players, dolls, lead-painted trains, and TVs that funded it. Relations with China are good enough right now, though, that it's kind of a long view type of mild concern. The Taiwan issue might change that some day, but China hasn't called for the death of the US, the UK, and Israel just yet, nor has their president denied the Holocaust.
Iran, on the other hand, was ruled by a US ally. It was taken over by militant theocrats who held US citizens hostage for well over a year. Many of us still remember the yellow ribbons for those hostages. They have supported terrorists in Israel, and they are believed to be funding and supplying terrorists within Iraq. No, I don't mean insurgent freedom fighters. Insurgent freedom fighters don't blow up women and children at Mosques and in the marketplaces. Insurgent freedom fighters attack military personnel and military targets with minimal collateral damage to their own country's people and property. I believe there are some people in Iraq who really are trying to just fight against the US occupation, but there's something else going on there as well. Don't be fooled for a second into thinking that religiously ruled Shia Iran is keeping any money or weapons it supplies away from death squads killing Aramaic Christians, Sunni Arabs, and Kurds in the streets. If they are indeed placing weapons and supplies into Iraq as is claimed, it's surely to help the Shiite cause more than anything else.
Why would a country so against what the US and our allies represent not be on a banned trading list? Hell, we still don't trade with Castro except for selling Cuba medicine and food. I still can't legally buy a Cuban cigar just because he nationalized a bunch of US-owned nightclubs and hotels and took the country socialist. Sure, Castro's a dictator, but when has that single fact ever stopped the US? I'd remove Cuba from the list long before Iran. Hell, we're even friendly with Libya now, and they blew up a Pam Am flight in the 80's. But Iran? No. Not under Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.
Technically, what they have is not precisely a despotic regime, although it not really democratic either. Iran's constitution is designed to be as democratic as possible, without quite being democratic.
Essentially, there are two halves of the government, one of which consists of the Majlis (parliament) and the Presidency, which is elected in a straightforward fashion and is responsible for most day to day government work. The other half of the government consists of the Supreme Leader, Guardian Council and Assembly of Experts. That half doesn't so much do things as stop things from happening. It is empowered to interfere in any government or political process, including in extreme cases disqualifying candidates it does not like for standing for the election to the Majlis.
In theory the Supreme Leader is indirectly elected: the people elect the Experts, and the Experts elect the Supreme Leader. However the Supreme Leader appoints the Guardians, who determine who may stand for election as an Expert. Therefore the Supreme Leader is in a position to indirectly disqualify any potential Expert who might vote against him.
The system is much too cumbersome to be despotic, although it has despotic elements. It is certainly more democratic than the old Soviet political system, and there are a number of curious ironies in how it operates. For example, the chairman of the Assembly of Experts, Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, is relatively speaking a political moderate and compared to the popularly elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he is considered pro-western.
Overall, the term "Islamic Republic" seems apt. A western republic is as democratic as it can be without encroaching on the prerogatives and liberties of the individual. Iran's government is as democratic as possible without encroaching on the prerogatives and authority of authorities in Islamic law.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Getting good performance out of cluster machines requires some work, but that's what open source software and spare grad students are for. You can't use them for every kind of problem, but they're pretty flexible, and they're certainly good enough for most kinds of nuke design or fluid flow.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I still like Noam Chomsky's summary of Iran - Iran is a democratic utopia compared to Saudi Arabia (who the US fully supports).