Russian E2K cracking RC5

Tuna Phish writes "Apparently the new Russian E2K computer is being used to crack distributed.net's RC5 contest! The user has come out on top the past few days with 2.7GK/s, more than 6 times the keyrate of second place. His message states "Russian Elbrus E2K is REAL POWER!" " Great-now we just need to get them to join Team Slashdot, and he can get all the pr0n he needs. *grin* So, I've been doing some looking around, and am doubting the veracity of this: bogus client? First prototype? Anyone have more info? Post it in the comments.

Comments

There doesn't appear to be cause for alarm

[Nugget94M]

From looking at the actual work being performed, there is no reason to believe that this person is using a hacked client. We've been in contact with the user and although the details are sketchy his story seems legitimate.

We're still talking with him, but for now the assumption is that this activity is legitimate. Our biggest fear is not that he's compromised the project but that he's using resources he doesn't have permission to use.

For what it's worth, he's not claiming that the blocks are being completed by an E2K. The motto is just his way of showing enthusiasm for the platform. In reality, it's win32 (and a few sparcs) all going through a linux proxy.

It's still way too early to draw any conclusions, but so far there's been nothing to set off any alarms on our end.

Re:Russian vacuum tube technology

[PD]

A lot of the myths about Russian vacuum tubes came from the reports about the MIG-25 that was flown by defector Victor B****** in 1976 to Japan.

The main radar of the MIG-25 used vacum tubes because it was extremely powerful. Tubes excel when power is required. First, it's cheap to build a powerful tube and expensive to build a powerful transistor. Second, when tubes fail, they go *plink* and when transistors fail, they explode and could bring down the aircraft. Try connecting a cheap diode in forward bias to a 12 volt power supply. It'll explode like a firecracker. My uncle used to work at a TV transmitter run by CBS. He showed me the driver for the final RF stage to the broadcast antenna. It was a gigantic vacuum tube.

MIG-25's are interceptors and they need to locate their targets over the vast distances of the Russian north. They don't usually have AWACS support, and their targets don't usually have transponders (!). So, the MIG-25 radar is far larger than what you'll find in an F-15. A vacuum tube is the perfect choice for such an application.

American Missiles

[SEWilco]

"much of the US defense would be decimated by EMPs from the first attack wave"

• The U.S. has no defense against missiles.
• U.S. misiles are designed to withstand EMP because they'll be exposed to it from the first explosions in a group ("fratricide")
• Missile silos are protected against EMP at various levels.
• EMP can destroy tube based devices also. You've never run too much power through a tube, have you?.

It's not E2k and not bogus

[_Shaft_]

It's just 8k computers using the same email.

Re:Russia doesn't even have modern fabs

[TurkishGeek]

True, Russia does not have "modern" fabs that match the US/Japanese standards, but it is flat out wrong that they were "decades behind" Western semiconductor technology or designed all their computers/electronic systems with vacuum tube technology. I believe this is a hoax, but there is still a dispute on whether it was the Russians(the team headed by Dr. Boris Babaian, the guy behind E2K project, and Elbrus supercomputers) or the Americans who designed the first superscalar machine. There is no doubt the Soviets had a fully functional, mass produced supercomputers in the late 1970s and early 80s that almost matched their Western counterparts in performance(Elbrus series).

Besides, McKinley is not the right example to give here. McKinley is still nothing more than a design, while the Alpha is real. As the process technology improves, the current Alpha 21264 and the upcoming 21364 design should still be faster or as fast as McKinley or E2K, unless there is a "quantum leap" kind of innovation in the microarchitecture.

This particular incident is clearly a hoax, but for God's sake, give the Russians the credit they deserve, guys. They can damn well design advanced microprocessors along a lot of other goodies. Remember, these guys were a superpower not long ago.

One thing I think the Russians will not be able to design for a long time is a decent car, though. Has anyone here in Slashdot ever driven a Lada Samara?

Re:elbrus e2k

[cirill]

For those who can read _Russian_ here is another link:

http://ixbt.stack.net/cpu/e2k-spec.html

Anybody to translate in details? i'm a bit busy at the moment :-/

The most interesting things are:
1. It is not in silicon yet
2. "... Planned production - 4th qrt. 2001".
3. One of the former Elbrus designers V.Pentkovsky is working for Intel since 1990-1. (follow the link from the article for details. Funny name, isn't it?)