Germany to fund development of edge CPUs as part of 'tech you can trust' plan to home-brew more kit

The German government has begun a fund to support locally brewed electronics as the country tries to reduce its reliance on imported kit. The new fund, named the "Technology You Can Trust" initiative, will throw money at research and development in what the government considers important technologies including health tech, …

[Anonymous Coward]

US pulling troops out of Germany

While you're distracted, perhaps you didn't notice Trump pulling a large number of troops from Germany?

So the EU-US relationship of 'we prop up your dollars so you can stay rich, you cycle that money into your military and police the world', is ending, and the need to focus on EU self sufficiency in tech is getting a bit more urgent.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/06/turkey-did-not-make-concessions-nato-summit

And with Turkey deploying Russian air defense systems, and Trump handing Syria over to Russia and Turkey, it seems pretty inevitable that Turkey will withdraw from NATO, at which point it would handily have an air defense system already in place:

"Turkey made no concessions at this week’s Nato summit and will continue to purchase the Russian S-400 air defence system, the Turkish foreign minister has said....Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu added that the purchase of the Russian system – condemned by France and the US Congress as incompatible with Nato membership – was “perfectly understood” by Donald Trump."

And of course Russia is also in Libya, with its Wagner Group mercenaries, just the other side of the Mediterranean:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-52811093

"Earlier this month a leaked UN report spoke of hundreds of mercenaries from the shadowy Wagner Group operating in Libya. Russia backs renegade Gen Khalifa Haftar's army."

And its major ally USA, is also flipped here:

https://theintercept.com/2020/04/13/erik-prince-russia-mercenary-wagner-libya-mozambique/

"Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater and a Trump administration adviser, has sought in recent months to provide military services to a sanctioned Russian mercenary firm in at least two African conflicts, according to three people with knowledge of the efforts....Prince, who is the brother of Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, met earlier this year with a top official of Russia’s Wagner Group and offered his mercenary forces to support the firm’s operations in Libya and Mozambique, according to two people familiar with Prince’s offer."

So Europe is hemmed in on all sides by semi-turned countries and needs to have strong control over its own technology and its own weapons.

[John Hawkins]

Re: US pulling troops out of Germany

I remember one of my history teachers pointing out that another major reason for the US dominating the sharp end of NATO was that they didn't want Europe and Germany in particular to be able to rival the US in military capabilities. Interesting therefore that MAGA seems to include encouraging the EU to become a military power.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: US pulling troops out of Germany

It's quite shocking to me that in one-presidency, we can see a total breakdown of the USA. All of those checks and balances mean nothing. The whole system riddled with 'team-red' partisan players, so capture team-red head, and they'll all blindly follow.

Europe (and UK in particular) think, 'USA will hold elections in November', and Trump will be gone, and security can be restored. Dreams!

See Fox News, some Barr investigation claiming it will prosecute FBI for investigating Trump's Russian connections, even as Trump is cancelling the Open Skies treaty for Putin benefit.

Biden will not win, they will close polling stations if Democrats turn out in force. and cancel the election. Troops will still be on the streets to shoot dissenters. There will be no hand over of power, the Supreme Courts are team-red partisans, they will repeat the contrived rulings of 2000. Wake up and smell the stench.

Turkey has already done a deal with Putin, Iran was pushed into Putin's arms by Trump, Georgia is trivial to take over. With Trump in power, he'll simply hand Putin control of Iraq the way he handed Syria over to him. Putin will be right there threatening Saudi Arabia, nukes and all.

But yeah team-red wins! They think dictators have 'teams', and they'll be rewarded. How naive.

[Robert Grant]

Re: US pulling troops out of Germany

I remember one of my history teachers pointing out that another major reason for the US dominating the sharp end of NATO was that they didn't want Europe and Germany in particular to be able to rival the US in military capabilities. Interesting therefore that MAGA seems to include encouraging the EU to become a military power.

You've got cause and effect switched. Only the US has the economy to fund most of NATO and supply fighters and materiel.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: US pulling troops out of Germany

Europe has a massive defence industry, and only uses US equipment when it's politically expedient. The EU and British economies are larger than any other bloc or nation, including the US, and isn't running at anywhere near the deficit or debt levels of the US.

[Robert Grant]

Re: US pulling troops out of Germany

This is what I'm talking about: https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison

[ThatOne]

Re: US pulling troops out of Germany

> Only the US has the economy to fund most of NATO and supply fighters and materiel

Almost: Only the USA produces so many "fighters and materiel" they have to create artificial structures to sell some of that stuff to... In short, it's a clever way to allow your "friends with benefits" to increase their sales...

[Claverhouse]

Re: US pulling troops out of Germany

It will be excellent to have Europe, and Germany in particular [ as the most stable ] rowing away from the dying ship of America --- not that bad for America either --- kind of a pity Great Britain has magnified her insignificance by losing all influence in Europe...

Still, Trump will get in and doesn't need any tricks or use of powers: the Democrats can always do that for themselves. And it is to be noted Trump's continuation of Obama's hatred of Nordstream 2 has trapped the Dems+Media into supporting the slimy gangster tactics this last week by the ever-ridiculous Congress, since their McCarthyite embrace of the demented Russiagate thing locked them in...

.

Personally I really doubt presidents effect that much change to America's course; and at least with this one,

Prince, who is the brother of Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, met earlier this year with a top official of Russia’s Wagner Group and offered his mercenary forces to support the firm’s operations in Libya and Mozambique

there's a comforting feeling of being in one of those godawful long-running American TV daytime soaps.

[Pascal Monett]

Cisco is just as untrustworthy as Huawei

If you decide to ban companies that are subject to state actors, then you have to grow your own telecomms kit as that is the only way you'll guarantee that the only state actor that can "see" the comms is you.

[renke]

Re: Cisco is just as untrustworthy as Huawei

it's an interesting risk assessment. do I want to be monitored by my own government (the homegrown option, maybe Siemens[0] will use the funding to become a telco player again) or another state actor (be it Huawei/China or Cisco/USA)?

[0] cf. Crypto AG, Operation Rubikon

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Cisco is just as untrustworthy as Huawei

It's a sad indictment on the post-Snowden world, but at this point I would not blame any major country for trying to develop more of their own micro-electronics to head off the possibility of foreign companies that are somehow in league with foreign sigint agencies.

[Pete4000uk]

I'm all for European, British and American companies producing more of their own kit, from silicon to steel

[EnviableOne]

the UK is great at ideas, it just sells them to the highest bidder:

ARM

Imagination

Autonomy

ICI

CityMapper

Graphcore

Darktrace

Revoult

Deliveroo

Improbable

[Anonymous Coward]

Dystopian clouds gathering

...And of course make your local hardware incompatible with the rest of the world, so you have a perfect control over your herd's grazing. A captive, walled market is much easier to control and protect, and, lacking competition, doesn't take as much effort either. Once you can make using foreign stuff a criminal offense you're golden: You now control both the professional and the private sphere of your subjects.

Next step, replace Internet access with network enclaves not unlike Compuserve and AOL, offering carefully curated content painting a positive image of the country and its rulers: People don't need to know some things, it only creates bad blood. (You might smile, but it's already starting in some countries, with more and more governments starting to "filter out" the "nasty" parts of Internet. And we all know where this leads: To the one and unique "OurCountryIsTheBest.ccTLD" internet portal supposed to offer everything a honest, law-abiding and god-fearing citizen might ever want or need.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of creating a chance for a choice of less messed-up CPUs, but given the general political atmosphere there are some very large pitfalls to be avoided.

[Doctor Syntax]

"Technology You Can Trust"

Who's "you"?

[Falmari]

Technology You Can Trust?

"Technology You Can Trust"

No one.

If is not your Government it will be a foreign one.

But what does that matter as the tech company itself is already spying on you anyway

[martinusher]

Its not necessarily the Chinese you need to be worried about

The last few years have seen the established global supply chain derailed by nationalist politics and it wasn't the Chinese that did it. The Americans led the way by weaponizing trade flows and supply chains, a move designed to maintain an outdated global hegemony and to further a domestic political agenda. This means that a country or region has two options, either become a sort of US satellite or foster enough independent capability not only as a hedge against further global turmoil but to act as a deterrent to further disruptive actions.

Domestically -- in the US -- we have to alter our political mindset before it damages us. We won't disappear, we're too big for that to happen, but we will see successive shocks to our economy which will further erode our prosperity (much of which is illusory for the majority of the population). We have to be an effective global competitor, not anf 800lb gorilla with a raging hedache.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Its not necessarily the Chinese you need to be worried about

As a fellow American, I agree with all your points except:

"we're too big for that to happen"

A brief list of empires that found out they weren't too big for that to happen:

Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek/Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine/Ottoman, Spanish, British, German, Russian, American (?).