Huawei founder says USA overestimates its semiconductor prowess Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has said the USA overestimates his company’s semiconductor design prowess, which is at least a generation behind rival chipmakers. In a friendly interview with Communist Party organ People’s Daily, Ren was asked about the USA’s recent claim that Huawei’s “Ascend” AI accelerator chips are based on …
And where are the profits to be found in crafting software that does only what is needed, but does it well?
Much as I'd like to see sensible, well crafted software replace the garbage heap that is the current software side of IT, I can't see that happening unless and until humanity learns the hard way that the software supporting our infrastructure is far too haphazard, insecure, and fragile for the needs of modern civilization.
The idea of doing the heavy work where the resources are is very smart and something the UK should emulate - here in Wales we have a lot of water, a lot of renewable energy and a lot of local resentment about the massive high-voltage pylons required to get that energy into England. If it's just going to be used to run datacentres there, then it seems really logical to build the datacentres here and just ship the data across, which is a lot easier than moving electricity.
Granted there's been several DC developments mainly around Newport, Cardiff, Swansea, but the Welsh energy system operates under the same rules as the rest of the mainland grid, which means that irrespective of Welsh wind farms, electricity prices are near enough* the same as the rest of the UK. Moreover, Wales may have a relatively large renewable generation base, but as at 2023 two thirds of power generated in Wales was gas powered plant, and Welsh net electricity exports to England were near enough the same as Welsh electricity imports from Ireland. So Wales is barely in electricity surplus, and is mostly fossil fuelled. Not sounding quite so green, perhaps?
As London (and LINX) is the primary market for hyperscalers, it's worth asking "why build in Wales?". France is nearer to London than Wales, and offers cheap, reliable power, and lower latency than Wales.
* The cost of distribution and transmission in Wales is actually a touch higher than more densely populated areas.
"The saving of 30 percent transmission loss alone...."
30% of the circa 1.7% transmission losses is half of one per cent. Hardly worth worrying about when UK industrial electricity prices are more than double that of our competitor countries
"These datacentres needs to be geolocated next to power sources, ideally renewable ones."
Why? Renewable energy is a shite match for DC energy needs, and as noted above the transmission losses are not material.
doing the heavy work where the resources are is very smart ...
... and old-school. Aluminium processing is very electric-energy-hungry, and that's why Pechiney has installed a huge industrial facility in the middle of the Alps (Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne) where electricity is produced by hydroelectric plants. Direct from producer to consumer with minimum loss.
After being blacklisted Trump ran to the ends of the earth to get financial support.
Thus he is owned by Russia. And if China and US now get real cosy it likely means a full blown European war.
China, solve global warming and peace, the current US certainly being ww3 antagonizing.
The EU can cope with China being the superpower peace saviour. The US is a Trump war zone.
Upon reading that subtitle, my first thought was "by stealing others' IP".
Might not be the case here (maybe; I'm reserving judgement), but plenty of form on China government and companies stealing western IP. I remember my dad's stories about visiting China - he brought me back a $5 "Rolex", saw bootleg copies of lots of movies for sale in the markets, and when he asked a local (a professional, not somebody on the street) about getting something LIKE "this here" DVD case to send with a product, they brought back an identical copy the next day, down to the patent number stamped in the plastic.
We'll start accepting the claims of "didn't steal the IP" when the obvious IP theft starts disappearing.
Property is only "property" only because and only to the extent that the governing state defines it as property. This is true everywhere and always.
The US bleating that it is calling something "property" carries no weight unless they can be the governing state. (hint: in China they aren't)
"You should be poor and pay us rent for things we can make for ourselves because we made up a rule" quite rightly carries f.all weight in China.
"You should let us have better weapons and not be able to defend yourselves" also doesn't carry much weight.
IP is a very self serving idea, or more realistically a bluff to try and make others disadvantage themselves at no cost to you.
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