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> Bunch of MBAs come up with idea of how to increase profits, aha! let's outsource some parts to China. This wasn't my understanding of what started the Phyisi

> Bunch of MBAs come up with idea of how to increase profits, aha! let's outsource some parts to China. This wasn't my understanding of what started the Phyisical Tech -> China exodus. Growing up in the 90's, my understanding was we started outsourcing manufacturing to other countries to side-step export controls. In the U.S., you could export a research paper on encryption but couldn't export the implementation. So chip manufactures were faced with a decision: create two chips, one w/ encryption for domestic and one w/o encryption for foreign markets OR produce a single product overseas. I think they made the right decision, when faced with the crypto wars, but it knee-capped our domestic manufacturing and contributed to China's dominance in manufacturing. An article going into the incentives created during this era by EFF founder John Perry: https://www.eff.org/pages/decrypting-puzzle-palace https://www.eff.org/pages/decrypting-puzzle-palace

stefan_ 5y ago
I think you are vastly overestimating the impact of crypto export limitations. People in the 90s couldn't spell cryptography.
- r3trohack3r 5y ago
  I think you’re underestimating the cost of manufacturing two separate devices. It wasn’t the crypto itself, it was that manufactures had to solve for export controls and they chose to manufacture a single product overseas instead of two domestically. I don’t think “crypto” was front of mind. Suspect it was “let’s build a computer” and the lawyers said “you can’t sell that in x market if you make it in the U.S.” so they didn’t.
mjevans 5y ago
Almost correct, but crypto isn't the real focus. It's whatever export controls prevent someone from easily shipping a computer outside of the US; I remember buying a CPU years ago and the retailer being extremely specific about not then shipping it out of the country.
- r3trohack3r 5y ago
  Yeah, I agree. Fair to say that second and third order effects of the legislation were the real focus for manufacturers?

stefan_ 5y ago

I think you are vastly overestimating the impact of crypto export limitations. People in the 90s couldn't spell cryptography.

r3trohack3r 5y ago
I think you’re underestimating the cost of manufacturing two separate devices. It wasn’t the crypto itself, it was that manufactures had to solve for export controls and they chose to manufacture a single product overseas instead of two domestically. I don’t think “crypto” was front of mind. Suspect it was “let’s build a computer” and the lawyers said “you can’t sell that in x market if you make it in the U.S.” so they didn’t.

mjevans 5y ago

Almost correct, but crypto isn't the real focus. It's whatever export controls prevent someone from easily shipping a computer outside of the US; I remember buying a CPU years ago and the retailer being extremely specific about not then shipping it out of the country.

r3trohack3r 5y ago
Yeah, I agree. Fair to say that second and third order effects of the legislation were the real focus for manufacturers?