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Released: First PC Based On Russia's Homegrown "Baikal" Processor (t-platforms.ru)

Posted by timothy on from the shoot-reliably-even-in-rough-conditions dept.

WheatGrass writes to note that the company T-Platforms has introduced the first mass production unit based upon the Russian Baikal-T1 processor, mentioned here last in 2014. The new Baikal-based workstation is called the "Meadowsweet terminal," according to T-Platform's official website; the feature list says it's running a Debian-based Linux distro. "Congratulations, Russia," Says WheatGrass. (According to Google's translation of this Russian-language story at RG.RU Digital, "[Y]ou can install many conventional applications, such as the LibreOffice office suite, Firefox web browser, and so on, the developers say," but the main use seems to be as a thin client.)

3 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. This is ... not so good news by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, it's probably a dated design and all, and bluntly I don't care about the chip itself. I wonder WHY.

    Why is Russia making its own chips when computer chips are cheap and plentiful? It's way cheaper to simply buy a few. Why bother rolling your own? Well, there are exactly two reason why I would make my own hardware. One, I don't trust the existing manufacturers to not include backdoors and kill switches. This is what I hope the reason for doing it is.

    Two, because they may not be available anymore when the country they're made in is no longer friendly to mine. This is what I kinda fear the reason could be.

    We're not going to head for war, but I could see the international climate getting frostier in the near future.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:This is ... not so good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Wrong, and not only wrong but very wrong.

      I'm not a Slavic person, nor am I paranoid, but I very much fear things will go down in flames within a not too distant future. Why?

      If you had known your history, you'd have known how similar these days are to the period preceding WWII, with growing economical inequalities and populist politicians taking new ground by using unemployment, fear and contempt of the establishment to springboard their new lives.

      We are also living in a time where human lives are getting less and less worth, we have basically via Wall Street and the "downsizing" mantra reintroduced the view that the have-nots are to be considered cannon-fodder and little else.

      The third thing to considered is that we are constantly bathed in the "glories" of WWII, war is generally considered good, if it's only waged against the right people. The early 20th century had it's warmongers, among Winston Churchill, who himself claimed to "love war", we have ours. They are all united in their supreme contempt for the suffering of the common man, who is so alien to them he could just as well be an insect. No matter what happens, the 1-percenters won't feel a thing.

      So, what we have is an elite who is running our societies which is increasingly alienated from the rest of our society, just like the old time nobility, and which similarly has nothing but contempt for the rest of us, have absolutely no sense of responsibility and is totally in the hands of their corporate masters, just like in the past.

      You don't have to be paranoid to be worried.

  2. Congratulations! by jouassou · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hope that they succeed. More competition in the CPU market is a good thing, and getting some international competitors based outside of the US/UK is also great.