Arrays in a mangler, need new storage bed: Huawei and the US tech block If the US persists with Huawei's inclusion on its tech export block list, the Chinese firm's storage array production could be hit hard, effectively leaving it scrambling for components after the reprieve ends in August. US technology supply to Huawei and about 70 of its affiliates is currently being stomped on by American …
For x86 compatible CPUs, there is already a Chinese source, the IP licensing deal done before the trade war with AMD via THATIC. China has the IP license and designs for making the previous gen CPUs in china, and can continue to make them. They just cant use / license any of the new designs.
Hygon currently produce the Chinese version of the AMD cpu, with their own customisation.
China does NOT have an AMD IP license. AMD is the majority owner of HYGON. HYGON has the right to design AMD x86 cpu's and contract for fabrication at TSMC. The silicon is then turned over to SUGON a AMD minority owned company for marketing and distribution.
The IP is firmly held by AMD.
"China has the IP license and designs for making the previous gen CPUs in china, and can continue to make them." That is like saying that the United States owns Intel and AMD IP.
Actually "China" does NOT own any IP. The IP is firmly held by AMD inside their majority OWNERSHIP of HYGON. AMD's minority ownership of SUGON markets and sells the silicon. AMD would simply close up HYGON and walk away after destroying the masks. TSMC would continue to fab X86 Dhayana for AMD SUGON who pays royalties back to AMD.
And again "CHINA" has no fab capability. TSMC and UMC do. If they violated ANY client confidentiality regarding client IP they would be out of business.
If the Chinese Government wanted to design their own x86 cpu clone they most certainly could. It has been done many times in the past by other companies. Zhaoxin has developed an x86 clone. In fact the Russians cloned the 8080 processor years ago. ALTAIR did as well. In fact the Russians have been copying US processors for years but they are junk.
The take-away point from all of this is if you rely heavily on US suppliers for your product, they can and will shaft you at the merest hint, without any proof, of threat to their dominance. All the backdoor rhetoric is just that. This is a pure and simple trade war. What will happen is many multi-nationals will be watching this furore and adjusting their strategy to insulate themselves from US protectionism.
End result? Damaging US trade. Nice move, Arsenoise.
The Orange One and his cohorts aren't very experienced in how trade works so, yes, they are unwittingly doing a lot of damage to our economy without realizing it. An obscure example is Maine lobsters. There's been a decent trade with China in this delicacy but once the tariffs hit China not only included this in their retaliatory tariffs but *lowered* tariffs on similar goods from other countries. The result is that Maine lobster fishermen have taken a big hit while their neighbors up the road in Canada have seen a significant increase in business. This shift in sourcing won't return should the tariffs be rescinded.
Disrupting a supply chain for a company like Huawei will cause them inconvenience and pain in the short term but they will eventually find alternatives. Once those alternatives are established there will be no going back because we in the US have shown ourselves to be capricious, overbearing and unreliable -- even if we lowball prices (unlikely) there's no incentive to switch back.
Of course, the really big export of the US is its currency. We've been able to get away with murder with trade and budget deficits because the world needs dollars to trade with. Once we really start interfering with trade -- sanctions are a form of tariff and vice versa -- then people will find alternatives to the dollar and the US dominated global financial system, a process that's already started. At that point we will be well and truly screwed. (Actually, everyone else will be because this is how global wars start....)
You're absolutely right. There's a knock-on effect to the US ham-stringing itself that affects everyone, which will become apparent probably just after the massive mewling infant is re-elected. It'll make 2008 look like prosperity.
Before anyone has a go at my anti-Arsenoise "bigotry," it looks like we're about to get our own Cabbage Patch baby¹ as leader which should put us all in the same boat, making it much easier to relate to each other. I can only hope that this situation does more to repair Anglo-American relations between the ordinary people than the actual election of said political foetuses.
¹ I actually think Boris is a good laugh as a mad, toff-bloke hybrid, but he's far, far from the PM we need. Perhaps he's the PM we deserve, a caricature of the nation?
Humble pie time!
Re: the footnote, looks like I was dead wrong about Mr Johnson. Loose cannon he may be but having heard him speak on issues he cares about, I suspect he's a genius in motley; perhaps not even in motley, since "scatterbrain" has always been an outward indicator of a rapid, agile and astute thought process. I'm now mildly optimistic about Bozza's premiership.
Perhaps I should re-think my opinion of Trump, although I find my distaste for egomaniacal, bigoted braggarts is still intact and still "trumps" anything he may be getting right. A weakness of mine allowing emotion to overrule thought? Perhaps...
I heard through my sales channel that a new version of Dorado based on ARM is due to launch soon and that it removes all dependencies on products and services affected by the ban. And yes, before you say anything, ARM "cutting ties" means they cannot help Huawei develop new stuff, but I'm told existing designs are licensed for a few years therefore they can be used.
China does not need to steal IP. They can simply design their own x86 silicon. The problem is they have no fabrication outside of TSMC.
All AMD is doing is designing a zen cored cpu inside of HYGON. There is no secret recipe.
China is not interested in marketing they will be more than happy producing the same cpu as long as it is SECURE from NSA backdoors.
In the west we see cpu design as a matter of who can sell the fastest cpu; Intel or AMD. China has no such marketing scheme. They simply do not care. ALl the care about is security.
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