China blocks use of Intel and AMD chips in government computers

I was talking to a friend, he was asking how come I always mention the deep state[0] in the context of western countries, but never in the context of ... others. And it dawned on me that maybe it's because the deep state is the state in those other countries (explicit) whereas we mask it with a thin layer of democracy (implicit). I dunno, your comments just triggered this memory.

[0] (not in a hugely conspiratorial way, just the bureaucracy, bureaucrats, lobbying that don't change between transitions are are sort of running the place)

pjmlp3• 2 years ago

It doesn't mean they contribute to upstream.

Ironically while UNIX clones might be the outcome of trade wars, that doesn't mean FOSS will benefit from it.

Specially when IP, national security, and code hosting servers become part of the whole picture.

Long term we will be back to cold war days where Open means ISO and Open Group kind of paper standards instead of actual code.

cyanydeez3• 2 years ago

Well, when more coders learn foss derived tools, they'll certainly end up outside the confines and then contribute'

papichulo20232• 2 years ago

Upstreaming stuff seems way easier than having to patch everything every update?

pyinstallwoes• 2 years ago

How does that have anything to do with linux? It's the microcode.

0823498723498724• 2 years ago

So do I have this right for the current situation?

    Eastasia - own production of h/w and s/w
    Eurasia - focus on h/w to make h/w;
      otherwise imports from Oceania
    Oceania - s/w in the core, h/w at the periphery;
      currently attempting to re-centralise h/w production

(it is a sad day when the FT —a british rag— offers but a single word mentioning Arm?)

ByQuyzzy• 2 years ago

I don't consider FT to be British. It's strongly of international character.

mangamadaiyan• 2 years ago

Except for the crosswords, which -- thankfully -- are still British (and by extension, Cryptic).

dannyw2• 2 years ago

The lengths you have to go to for a ME-free or PSP-free computer is insane. I wish someone made a viable alternative. ARM isn’t great, as you can’t run Qubes.

div72• 2 years ago

Isn't ARM's TrustZone equivalent to ME/PSP on Intel/AMD?

redleader55• 2 years ago

TrustZone allows you to boot an OS that keeps separate memory from the main OS. It is used to do cryptography and other secure computation while keeping its secure parts hidden from the OS. There are open source OSes that run in TrustZone - eg. Trusty, Optee.

ME is firmware that you don't have any control over (it comes from the CPU marker, packaged with the BIOS) and is used to manage the machine for remote access(not specifically nefarious).

They are quite different in their purpose and more importantly implementation.

Havoc• 2 years ago

This feels like a way to force demand for their in house chips despite them not being entirely competitive yet.

justinclift• 2 years ago

They're not pretending otherwise. :)

dotps1• 2 years ago

It feels that way, because that is the exact intent.

cyanydeez3• 2 years ago

Or they're just doing a,mirror of American policy decisions.

Which is more boring.

Yall get paranoid and thing your paranoia has no effect on your interactions.

hollerith• 2 years ago

There are also large benefits in making it harder for Washington to spy on Beijing. I saw a news report 15 years ago or so saying that the Kremlin went back to using mechanical typewriters out of worry that Western intelligence agencies can exfiltrate data from the Kremlin's computers.

maxglute• 2 years ago

In other news:

https://chipsandcheese.com/2024/03/13/loongson-3a6000-a-star...

ChrisArchitect• 2 years ago

Loongson 3A6000: A Star Among Chinese CPUs

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39726124

belter• 2 years ago

https://archive.is/x4zIN

thisislife2• 2 years ago

Good move. At least they understand the threat of digital colonisation. Wish my country, India, did so too. Instead we are just leaking more and more personal and private data.

ksec• 2 years ago

If I record both Intel and AMD have CPU ME-free or PSP-free made for specific clients. China have their own version of x86 CPU although not as advanced. AMD also has a JV with Zen 2 IP.

All while they are matching ahead with RISC-V. Alibaba and Huawei have been pouring resources into making sure RISC-V is competitive, both on hardware and software.

DoItToMe81• 2 years ago

Has the list of approved chips leaked? I would be very interested to see what they consider to be alternatives.

China blocks use of Intel and AMD chips in government computers

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