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: 2) by unauthorized on Wednesday May 11 2022, @04:49AM (4 children)
I suppose it could be that they are just massive fans of the aesthetics [wikimedia.org], but you have to admit it stretches credibility to assume it's on accident or that they are just doing it for the memes. Sure, they've toned it down recently but a paramilitary group of "patriots" with a history of conducting warcrimes whose membership includes 10%-20% self-identified Nazis as members is uhhh.... I mean, they welcome open Nazis in their ranks, they are founded by people who ape nazi aesthetics, their model states are "Israel and Japan" which white nationalists are known to fetishize as ethnostates, and they wear permutations of SS symbology. I'm all for giving people the benefit of the doubt and hey, maybe they are just 4chan denizens shitposting IRL, but surely you have to admit all of this evidence, circumstantial as it may be, does warrant some suspicion.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 11 2022, @05:03AM (3 children)
Warrant suspicion of what? Why again does it matter that there's Ukrainian nazis?
(Score: 1) by unauthorized on Wednesday May 11 2022, @05:56AM (2 children)
Because the statement "Yep, and it's totally Ukraine that has the Nazi problem too!" can either be interpreted as dismissing the existence of nazis in Ukraine. I suppose it could also be interpreted to that they are not "the nazi problem", but that would be awkward wording.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 11 2022, @01:20PM
Given that Putin was the one pulling the Nazi-style invasion of Ukraine, I would agree that Ukraine isn't the nazi problem here.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 11 2022, @02:57PM
I was pointing out that the guy defending Russia sounded like a fucking Nazi....