Russian Nuclear Company Tests 'Beaver' PCs With Homegrown Baikal CPUs:
A daughter company of Rosatom, a nuclear energy company owned by the Russian government, is testing PCs from Delta Computers called Beaver that are based on a processor designed by Russia's Baikal Microelectronics and a Linux distribution approved for use by state agencies. The company is trying to replace PCs designed by Western companies with something domestic, reports 3DNews. But they may have an obstacle in their way.
Delta Computers' Beaver is a small form-factor PC running Baikal Electronics's Baikal-M1 (BE-M1000) chip and the Astra Linux Special Edition operating system. The Beaver can have up to 64GB of DDR4 memory and up to 16TB of HDD and SSD storage. The machine has multiple USB Type-A 2.0/3.0 ports, PS/2 connectors, an RS-232 header, two Ethernet ports, an HDMI output, and two 3.5-mm audio connectors for headphones and microphones. The PC can be upgraded with low-profile PCIe 3.0 x8 add-in-boards, such as graphics cards. The system uses an LCD display, a corded keyboard, and a corded mouse.
"The concern has purchased the first batch of 'Beaver' domestic personal computers based on the Baikal processor and is getting ready to introduce them into the infrastructure of the Rosenergoatom energy generating company," a statement by Rosatom reads.
Delta's Beaver is nothing special if not for its Baikal-M1 SoC. The Baikal-M1 is a rather well-known processor that packs eight Arm Cortex-A57 cores with an 8MB L3 cache operating at 1.50 GHz and mated with an eight-cluster Arm Mali-T628 GPU with two display pipelines. The SoC, which uses technologies from 2014 – 2015, is made by TSMC using one of its 28nm-class process technologies. But such processors cannot be shipped to a Russian or a Belarussian entity from Taiwan due to restrictions imposed by the government.
While Rosatom might have procured samples of Beaver (Bober in Russian), Delta Computers can't get enough processors as the owner of Baikal Microelectronics went bankrupt in late 2022.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday March 06, @02:07PM (1 child)
It's 8 A57s ARM cores with an 8 cluster ARM GPU, what's the likelihood that it can run most (or any) of the Wintel stack software out there?
>the owner of Baikal Microelectronics went bankrupt in late 2022.
Speaking of a crisis, I guess the fab workers aren't producing product for no pay then...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Monday March 06, @02:38PM
It can take a discrete GPU using PCIe 3.0 x8, which could improve its chances immensely. If it wasn't vaporware, that is.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Opportunist on Monday March 06, @02:29PM (4 children)
...they'll stop stealing washing machines so they can loot them for chips for another batch of missiles?
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Monday March 06, @02:51PM
October 16, 2021:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/first-baikal-socs-delivered-to-russia [tomshardware.com]
February 25, 2022:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/new-export-rules-to-leave-russia-without-chips [tomshardware.com]
I assume they have somewhere between 5,000 and 20,000 of these, so nah.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 06, @11:25PM
The washing machines probably aim better than the missiles.
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday March 08, @09:35AM (1 child)
"This... is... a Russian CPU. Feel it. And I can promise you it's not the only one we have. In Russia we have... hoho... dozens of CPUs. Do-zens!"
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday March 08, @03:31PM
And they can do .... pinky to mouth... a MILLION instructions a second!
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Monday March 06, @04:40PM
Off-topic, the beaver [youtu.be] is a keystone species, and is found in a lot of Russia. So if they consider their chip efforts similarly foundational, the name can do double duty as a mission statement.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday March 06, @09:32PM (1 child)
we love beaver: you can put things into it and pull it back out again.
Beaver is great, especially Canadian beaver. Have not tried Russian beaver: is it the same or is it drunker?
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Tuesday March 07, @02:39AM
I'd be more worried about whether they get stronger and meaner [youtu.be] when they get drunk.