US Gov't Blocks Sales To Russian Supercomputer Maker

Nerval's Lobster writes "T-Platforms, which manufactured the fastest supercomputer in Russia (and twenty-sixth fastest in the world), has been placed on the IT equivalent of the no-fly list. In March, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security added T-Platforms' businesses in Germany, Russia and Taiwan to the 'Entity List,' which includes those believed to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. U.S. IT companies are essentially banned from doing business with T-Platforms, especially with regards to HPC hardware such as microprocessors, which could be used for what the government views as illegal purposes. The rule, discovered by HPCWire, was published in March. According to the rule, Commerce's End-User Review Committee (ERC) believes that T-Platforms may be assisting the Russian government and military conduct nuclear research — which, given historical tensions between the two countries, apparently falls outside the bounds of permitted use. An email address that T-Platforms listed for its German office bounced, and Slashdot was unable to reach executives at its Russian headquarters for comment."

Comments

US vs. Russia & China

[drinkydoh]

These artificial limitations on what and with who US companies can work with are just creating a wall between US and other countries. The nations that mainly benefit from this are Russia and China and they can do a lot of business and even military research together. Not only that but Russia and China have always been good friends, even after soviet russia fell down.

Therefore, both Russia and China wins and US loses.

Re:US vs. Russia & China

[ColdWetDog]

It's time to stop pretending all this is going to work. If anyone in the world wants software or hardware it's pretty easy to get it.

It works as well as expected. It slows things down but doesn't pretend stop the flow of information completely. Nobody except the black and white brigade thinks otherwise. Slowing your enemy down is a useful strategic goal. And, in this case, Russia and China are enemies in the great game.

And lots of things aren't 'easy' to get. You might get the part. You won't get much support. And in complex tech, support is often a deal breaker.

friends...enemies.....wtf?

[stanlyb]

If it is to use russian space station, they are good enough to be friends, but if it is to actually lend them some computer power, they become enemy!!! No, really, what the heck!
And, just for the record, i don't see how this ban would stop them to buy the parts directly from the manufacturer, China.

Re:friends...enemies.....wtf?

[ColdWetDog]

Have you ever stopped to consider that human relationships are complicated? People write books about this sort of thing. Plays and movies even. Tears are shed, bottles of booze drank and broken. Wars started. Wars ended.

I mean, people Tweet about this stuff!

Re:US vs. Russia

[WindBourne]

Sometimes, those who lose, will come back to defeat you. Ask Europe how that works out.

Export control on computers needs to stop

[Animats]

US export control on computers needs to stop. The need for it ended decades ago. All US nuclear weapons were designed with computers below 10 MIPS, and in many cases below 1 MIPS. (The most recent US nuclear weapon design is from the mid-1970s.) The problem isn't getting any harder.