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UK sanctions Russian microprocessor makers, banning them from ARM:
The UK government added 63 Russian entities to its sanction list on Wednesday [04 May]. Among them are Baikal Electronics and MCST (Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies), the two most important chip makers in Russia.
The two sanctioned entities will now be denied access to the ARM architecture since Arm Ltd., the licensee, is based in Cambridge, England, and will have to comply with the sanctions.
[...] The two firms are considered vital for Russia's technological independence efforts, as they are expected to step up and cover the shortages created by the lack of processors made by Western chip-makers such as Intel and AMD.
[...] While these processors [the most advanced processors Baikai and MCST currently supply], and the much worse mid-tier and low-tier chips that carry the Baikal and MCST sticker, don't feature impressive performance, they could keep some vital parts of the Russian IT section going during shortages.
Although Russia has eased licensing regulations on other sanctioned items, such as software, that will most likely not happen here.
[...] However, it is important to remember that Baikal and MCST processors are made in foreign foundries, like Samsung's and TSMC's, and those two wouldn't infringe Arm's licensing rules and international law to facilitate Russian interests.
Baikal, which holds a valid license to produce at 16nm, only has a design license for its upcoming models, not manufacturing, so the only solution is to take the production domestically and ignore the rules.
[...] The Russian government has already approved an investment of 3.19 trillion rubles (38.2 billion USD) to counteract this in April 2022, but boosting local production will take many years. In the most optimistic scenarios, Russian foundries will be able to produce 28nm chips by 2030.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Tuesday May 10 2022, @06:57PM
Well stated; you have a good grasp of big-picture.
But remember, USA, by definition and its name, is a collection of semi-independent states, corporations, social groups, values, etc., and operates as such. We have constant internal fighting and scrapping that reduces our efficiency, drains precious resources, and slows progress and innovation (yet amazingly we're usually leading the rest of the world, and generally open and free with sharing what we learn and have). IE, we compete with ourselves.
And, as is well discussed here and everywhere, we have a comparatively weak government that is largely owned and run by the all-too short-sighted greedy corporations. (I've said for years we need a People's Lobby- congress should listen to We the People _more_ than corporate lobbyists).
China, for sure, and to some extent Russia, operate as a whole, a collective, competing mostly with USA and the rest of "the west".
Japan is an interesting example of friendly cooperative mild respectful competition. S. Korea is somewhat this way too.
I've noticed for more than 30 years that the world- competition and trade, is not a level playing field. What you've pointed out is exactly what one would expect to be happening based on the years of setup.
Now the question is: how to fix it.