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China blocks use of Intel and AMD chips in government computers
- hulitu 3y ago> China blocks use of Intel and AMD chips in government computers With ME and PSP there, this is no wonder. Why took them so long ?
- londons_explore 3y agoLack of any viable alternatives
- nubinetwork 3y agoThey have had an amd clone chip for a while now... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygon_Information_Technology https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygon_Information_Technology Also whether loongarch is any good is anyone's guess.
- nebula8804 3y agoWell there have been benchmarks posted in the past [1]:https://www.phoronix.com/news/Loongson-3A5000-Benchmark https://www.phoronix.com/news/Loongson-3A5000-Benchmark Also you can buy some loongson 3A5000 CPU + Motherboard on Aliexpress and try it out yourself. Would be kind of nifty to own a Chinese architecture but not 330$ nifty. (at least not to me)
- catgirlinspace 3y agohttp://archive.today/MvSFZ http://archive.today/MvSFZ
- londons_explore 3y agoThis basically means 'we're migrating everything to linux'. The outcome will probably be good for the opensource world.
- 082349872349872 3y agoWhen Red Star OS (붉은별) was discussed a while ago, all the built-in telemetry and tracking was pointed out. I think the intervening years have proven that what the DPRK did explicitly, all the western proprietary OS vendors have also done, implicitly.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ThalesX 3y agoI 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)
- 082349872349872 3y agoIf you haven't seen them, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister are excellent (up to a point?) explorations of the agency issues between a permanent civil service and an ephemeral political leadership. (see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba_Eban#Family https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba_Eban#Family ) > whereas we mask it with a thin layer of democracy I understand China has a yearly meeting where a few thousand regionally elected delegates get together and vote on various national proposals for the year to come... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_People%27s_Congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_People%27s_Congress http://www.npc.gov.cn/zgrdw/englishnpc/Special_12_2/index.htm http://www.npc.gov.cn/zgrdw/englishnpc/Special_12_2/index.ht...
- ThalesX 3y agoJust saw the 1st episode, great start, thank you for the recommendation!
- 082349872349872 3y agoSo 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 3y agoI don't consider FT to be British. It's strongly of international character.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mangamadaiyan 3y agoExcept for the crosswords, which -- thankfully -- are still British (and by extension, Cryptic).
- dannyw 3y agoThe 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 3y agoIsn't ARM's TrustZone equivalent to ME/PSP on Intel/AMD?
- redleader55 3y agoTrustZone 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.
- timschmidt 3y ago"The PSP itself represents an ARM core (ARM Cortex A5) with the TrustZone extension which is inserted into the main CPU die as a coprocessor." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Platform_Security_Processor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Platform_Security_Processo...
- dannyw 3y agoME is a bit more than that. To enable remote access functionality, the ME has: * Access to all memory of the host device. * Ability to make and receive network requests, transparent (invisible) to the host device. * Access to all other communications, buses, and devices of the host device. * Can execute CPU commands at the highest privilege level. * Accepts updates that are signed by Intel's signing key. This means that it's quite possible for a web page to deliver a series of "magic bytes" that a backdoored ME listens to, and then immediately executes instructions. Various controls, like the UK and Australia, have laws in force that can compel companies like Intel to sign using its signing key. Before you think this doesn't affect someone in the US, it is widely known that five-eyes uses each other's capabilities and privileges and acts collectively.
- Havoc 3y agoThis feels like a way to force demand for their in house chips despite them not being entirely competitive yet.
- justinclift 3y agoThey're not pretending otherwise. :)
- dotps1 3y agoIt feels that way, because that is the exact intent.
- cyanydeez 3y agoOr 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 3y agoThere 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.
- ge96 3y agoHa, yet the US was gifted a wooden frame with an antenna inside (no battery) to listen to convos
- maxglute 3y agoIn other news: https://chipsandcheese.com/2024/03/13/loongson-3a6000-a-star-among-chinese-cpus/ https://chipsandcheese.com/2024/03/13/loongson-3a6000-a-star...
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoRelated: Loongson 3A6000: A Star Among Chinese CPUs https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39726124 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39726124
- belter 3y agohttps://archive.is/x4zIN https://archive.is/x4zIN
- thisislife2 3y agoGood 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 3y agoIf 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 3y agoHas the list of approved chips leaked? I would be very interested to see what they consider to be alternatives.