4 ms·

Captured Russian Weapons Are Packed with U.S. Microchips

15 points by keewee7 4y ago

keewee7 4y ago
There is not really any Russian or Chinese alternatives to modern high-end FPGAs from Xilinx and Intel/Altera. These FPGAs are important in modern radar and electronic warfare systems. However I expected the Russians to be designing and manufacturing their own 32-bit MCUs by now. Surprised that they're not doing that.
- rektide 4y ago
  Kind of makes the open chip movement a little bit less glossy, thinking of there being really good work anyone can use. OpenFPGA, plenty of RISC-V cores... society wants to be able to advance, to improve, but when we start to see the price includes letting warmongers also support themselves... That said, these people would probably figure out some kind of solution eventually. But damn this makes it easy.
  - karmakaze 4y ago
    In this case the insticators are the warmongers, in another the need for openhardware could be the defenders. Like privacy you can't be selective about who gets it.
    - rektide 4y ago
      The civil world, in general, tends to shield defenders. It's likely that a country being assaulted will have many people willing to help it with chis, if it comes to that. Aggressors, condemned by the world, are the people who need to bootstrap their own capabilities, & will most strongly need & be able to leverage open hardware. I don't like it but this is still my read here. And we still definitely definitely need to do openhardware. But these are new relevant factors.
- breadloaf 4y ago
  They are not doing that, because they have big troubles to pull off semiconductor manufacturing See Asianometry: Why Russia Can’t Replace TSMC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_4R4X7AWtU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_4R4X7AWtU
bediger4000 4y ago
Not microchips, but that article has a picture of a helicopter with concentric, dual rotors. I can't get over how complicated the swash plates and other mechanisms are. The maintenance on those must be wild, both in time and material requirements.
- aerostable_slug 4y ago
  For another interesting variation, check out the "eggbeater" rotors built by Kaman as well as a couple other companies.
simonblack 4y ago
What else would you expect when globalism is the preferred world economic setup? What's the bet that Raytheon planes and missiles are full of Russian titanium? History is full of instances where warring nations buy stuff from their enemies via middlemen.

15 points by keewee7 4y ago

There is not really any Russian or Chinese alternatives to modern high-end FPGAs from Xilinx and Intel/Altera. These FPGAs are important in modern radar and electronic warfare systems. However I expected the Russians to be designing and manufacturing their own 32-bit MCUs by now. Surprised that they're not doing that.

rektide 4y ago
Kind of makes the open chip movement a little bit less glossy, thinking of there being really good work anyone can use. OpenFPGA, plenty of RISC-V cores... society wants to be able to advance, to improve, but when we start to see the price includes letting warmongers also support themselves... That said, these people would probably figure out some kind of solution eventually. But damn this makes it easy.
- karmakaze 4y ago
  In this case the insticators are the warmongers, in another the need for openhardware could be the defenders. Like privacy you can't be selective about who gets it.
  - rektide 4y ago
    The civil world, in general, tends to shield defenders. It's likely that a country being assaulted will have many people willing to help it with chis, if it comes to that. Aggressors, condemned by the world, are the people who need to bootstrap their own capabilities, & will most strongly need & be able to leverage open hardware. I don't like it but this is still my read here. And we still definitely definitely need to do openhardware. But these are new relevant factors.
breadloaf 4y ago
They are not doing that, because they have big troubles to pull off semiconductor manufacturing See Asianometry: Why Russia Can’t Replace TSMC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_4R4X7AWtU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_4R4X7AWtU

bediger4000 4y ago

Not microchips, but that article has a picture of a helicopter with concentric, dual rotors. I can't get over how complicated the swash plates and other mechanisms are. The maintenance on those must be wild, both in time and material requirements.

aerostable_slug 4y ago
For another interesting variation, check out the "eggbeater" rotors built by Kaman as well as a couple other companies.

simonblack 4y ago

What else would you expect when globalism is the preferred world economic setup? What's the bet that Raytheon planes and missiles are full of Russian titanium? History is full of instances where warring nations buy stuff from their enemies via middlemen.