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Altera and Xilinx make FPGAs, not ASICs. They are two fundamentally different kinds of chips. Why would Russia invest tens of millions of dollars on making its

Altera and Xilinx make FPGAs, not ASICs. They are two fundamentally different kinds of chips. Why would Russia invest tens of millions of dollars on making its own series of 5 cent microprocessors when it can just import cheap commodity STM32 chips? There is no point in manufacturing them, it's simply not a smart way of spending money. If you don't believe Russia can fab their own chips, you can just go on eBay and buy an Elbrus system, or something. They can. They have the capability to produce basic chips, and you can buy them. I don't understand why them doing the smart thing and saving hundreds of millions to billions of dollars by not reinventing the wheel and redesigning every category of commodity chip is proof they can't, especially when you can literally go out and buy Russian made chips.

dragontamer 3y ago
> Altera and Xilinx make FPGAs, not ASICs. They are two fundamentally different kinds of chips. But FPGAs can replace ASICs especially with regards to RADAR / signal processing. Its clear that they prefer these Xilinx / Altera chips, because they're bothering to try to black-market import these chips and avoid sanctions. > Why would Russia invest tens of millions of dollars on making its own series of 5 cent microprocessors when it can just import cheap commodity STM32 chips? There is no point in manufacturing them, it's simply not a smart way of spending money. Because we have laws (that should be better enforced) such that Russia isn't supposed to be getting those chips right now. Starve Russia of those chips.
- sudosysgen 3y ago
  As I've said before, the sanctions are fundamentally unenforceable for commodity chips, and the Russians know this. While FPGAs can replace ASICs for some tasks, that's not true for all of them, and for many it will be worse in the end. But sure, anyways Russia can't go lower than 65nm so it can't make great FPGAs no matter what.

dragontamer 3y ago

> Altera and Xilinx make FPGAs, not ASICs. They are two fundamentally different kinds of chips. But FPGAs can replace ASICs especially with regards to RADAR / signal processing. Its clear that they prefer these Xilinx / Altera chips, because they're bothering to try to black-market import these chips and avoid sanctions. > Why would Russia invest tens of millions of dollars on making its own series of 5 cent microprocessors when it can just import cheap commodity STM32 chips? There is no point in manufacturing them, it's simply not a smart way of spending money. Because we have laws (that should be better enforced) such that Russia isn't supposed to be getting those chips right now. Starve Russia of those chips.

sudosysgen 3y ago
As I've said before, the sanctions are fundamentally unenforceable for commodity chips, and the Russians know this. While FPGAs can replace ASICs for some tasks, that's not true for all of them, and for many it will be worse in the end. But sure, anyways Russia can't go lower than 65nm so it can't make great FPGAs no matter what.