Posts by Bartholomew 462 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Dec 2013
I'll leave this here then https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_System_No._7?useskin=vector#Protocol_security_vulnerabilities
A US senator knowingly agreed to allow security researchers (Karsten Nohl and Tobias Engel) to eavesdrop on their phone calls for one day using SS7. And the researchers based in Germany were able to listen into his private mobile phone conversations in the US.
The front door has great locks on it, but the back door is wide open.
I always laugh at banning local telco kit, the whole global SS7 (Signalling System No. 7 - latest version is from 1993-03) back end to the whole phone system is so insecure, it does not really matter what the local telco kit is.
Imagine the peak of computer security in 1993 ? Would you trust it 30 years later ?
The last remaining astronauts who walked on the moon are not getting any younger:
Buzz Aldrin (age 93)
David Scott (aged 90)
Charles Duke (aged 87)
Harrison Schmitt (aged 87)
"get on up" as a famous musician once said (James Brown, 1970 - Get Up)
Well they have, if it ever actually happens (The promotional video is now 5 years old, and the website has been static for about the same), already agreed to join the "Eurovision Asia Song Contest". The first contest should have 10 countries (Australia, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, South Korea and Vanuatu).
I learned something new today, that always makes me happy! But I do feel stupid. I actually had to lookup "bifurcation" to confirm what it meant and then stick "sixth" into an English to Latin translator (sixth->sextus). I could not find it listed in any online dictionaries (plugged "sexfurcation define" into a search engine), but it is a totally legitimate and 100% valid English word, just hardly ever used.
bifurcation - the division of something into two branches or parts
trifurcation -to divide or fork into three branches or parts
quadfurcation - forking or division into four branches or parts
pentfurcation - forking or division into five branches or parts
In the long run sanctions will only accelerate China, with nearly 19% of the global population isolated from external suppliers. That is one hell of a home market. There is only one eventual outcome, and it will not be good for anyone but China.
Where is the highest concentration of the 17 critical rate earth elements (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium) on earth (hint: it is around ~38%). Now is the time to strengthen international relations with Vietnam(~19%), Brazil(~18.1%), Russia(10.4%), India(6.0%), Australia(3.5%), United States(1.3%), Greenland(1.3%), Tanzania(0.8%), Canada(0.7%), South Africa(0.7%) for access to these key elements needed for all the current (and probably long into the future) green economy technologies.
Running each result against three complex rules will increase the power usage by two, three or four (depending on if it fails on the first, second or passes all three rules) and it will also reduce how many safe queries (that pass all three rules) it can be processed by factor of four. Or put another way increase the backlog of all queries by four, since the rules must be executed sequentially (They can not be executed in parallel).
1. A machine may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A machine must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A machine must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Ethically it is the right thing to do, financially to maximise profit - it will never happen.
> national secret algorithm": like the non-Chinese world is going to trust that
With nearly 18.47% of the earths population, I see no harm in China hardware selling with their own encryption standard, there is a big enough internal market. Why would China ship with only "trusted" encryption standards. Dual Elliptic Curve Deterministic Random Bit Generation comes to mind, where the NSA (Bullrun decryption program) influenced NIST into fully endorsing the weakened backdoor. And RSA set it as their default.
There is public source code for all the "national secret algorithm"'s on <a href="https://github.com/guanzhi/GmSSL>github</a>.
SM2/SM3/SM4/
SM3 (hash) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM3_(hash_function)?useskin=vector
SM4 (cipher) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM4_(cipher)?useskin=vector
SM9 ...
From what I've read the first Dubhe based chip should be announced sometime in Q2 as the Fang Jinghong 8100 SoC (JH8100), probably 6 core (but might be 8) so at least four Tianshu large cores (normal frequency 2 GHz) and at least two Tianshu small cores (normal frequency 1.5 GHz); RV64GCBNVH; 12-stage pipeline design and can realise superscalar and deep out-of-order execution; hardware H.264 / H.265 / VP9 / AV1 codec decoding; estimated SPECint2006 9.0 / GHz, Dhrystone 6.6 DMIPS / MHz, CoreMark7.6 / MHz; support for 4K 60fps displays; a bigger GPU from Imagination Technology than the one used in the JH7110; USB3.0/2.0 (x4), full-featured Type-C supporting DP, PD and USB 3.2 Gen 2; PCIe 3.0 x8; built-in NPU (2 TOPS - Trillion Operations per Second) for artificial intelligence, which supports mainstream architectures such as TensorFlow; hardware security engines for AES / DES / HASH / PKA and China national secret algorithm; 4-channel digital MIC. CPU cluster computing cache coherence, via a built-in multi-core bus technology self-developed by Saifang Technology - Starlink 1.0. Starlink 1.0 has the characteristics of high scalability, low power consumption, low latency, and easy debugging. (delay can reach 13.5 ns, power consumption is only 0.27 watts).
The plan was for the JH8100 to be manufactured with a 12nm process (For comparison, VisionFive 2 uses a JH7110 and the RPi4B uses BCM2711, both of which were manufactured with a TSMC 28 nm process), the real question is can that happen SMIC (with sanctions, removing TSMC as an option). Maybe that will delay the exact specification being officially announced.
As well as keeping an eye on the JH8100 I'm also looking at the SiFive Horse Creek, which has no vector support (built by Intel Foundry Services on the Intel 4 process, aka 7nm process node):
SiFive P500 (RV64GBC) quad-core processor @ up to 2.2 GHz; 13-stage, 3-issue high-performance out-of-order pipeline; Each core has 32KB instruction + 32KB data L1 private cache and 256KB L2 cache ; Up to 4MB L3 cache in a quad-core cluster; SPECint 2006 score of 8.65/GHz; DDR5-5600 memory controller interface from Cadence; Intel PCIe 5.0 PHY with x8 lanes; Synopsys PCIe Root Hub Controller; I3C, Quad and Octal SPI, UART, peripheral DMA ; 19 x 19 standard FBGA Package ; Supports Ubuntu 20.04 with Linux 5.17.4.
The deal breakers for me would be if StarFive used a draft version instead of the ratified standard RISC-V extension, and if Intel tries to shove in a Intel ME chip (I do not want a chip in my CPU that can only run unauditable, encrypted and signed code updated by the vendor for a couple of years).
But the SiFive/Intel board should land sometime this year, the JH8100 SoC once announced will probably take another six months to a year and a half until it is on a board that can be bought.
Intel ME and AMD PSP. I'm not saying that they contain spyware, but CPU cores that only run unauditable encrypted and signed code from the CPU manufacturers and have full access to all hardware. Both Intel and AMD can at any time can receive a FISA court order, with gagging, have no option but to comply.
I'm would never say that China would not do the exact same, but so far most of the critical firmeware for CPU's from China that I've seen are unencrypted and unsigned. And any ROM's inside the CPU's I have access to read and can dump and disassemble.
I'm sure China just like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, facebook generally do not add much spyware to their hardware, is it far far cheaper to have it in the software and then it can be updated constantly.
After 1 nm marketing, the next term will be angstrom (1 nm = 10 angstrom ; 0.1 nm = 1 angstrom).
Of course one or more of the three might go Picometre instead, and you can take it for granted that they will eventually go smaller than 210 Picometre (van der Waals radius of a single Silicon atom). (1 nm = 1000 Picometre ; 0.001 nm = 1 Picometre)
Because at the end of the day it is just marketing.
van der Waals radius of a Silicon-28 atom is 0.21 nm. So 2 nm would be just 9 atoms wide, I wonder how many electrons that could carry ? (I know I'm ignoring height).
Luckily "Intel 2nm process" is just a marketing name, with no connection to physical dimensions whatsoever. You could almost think of it like a brand name for their product, like Coca-Cola or Pepsi.
So on paper Intel can have a "Intel 2nm process" any time that they want, people may not buy it. The thing is people are idiots, the "Intel 10 nm process" (100.76 million transistors per square millimetre - 2019-05) was last to have a product, but slightly better than the "TSMC 7nm process" (91.2 MTr - 2018-04) and the "Samsung 7nm process" (85.08 MTr =-2019-04)
(ref: https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/7_nm_lithography_process#Density
But you have to love Intel balls, they renamed their "Intel 7-nanometer process" to be their "Intel 5-nanometer process", because their "Intel 7nm process" would have a similar (well, slightly higher/better) transistor density (million transistors per square millimetre) to "Samsung 5nm process" and "TSMC 5nm process". It does make sense because people hear a a single digit number which is a marketing term and not a measurement and naturally assume that a "Intel 7nm process" must be worse than a competitors 5 nm process. It was brilliant marketing by TSMC and Samsung, and they have consistently had their product to market before Intel for the last few generations of chips.
In such dark times you need a smile, so I'll leave this here:
And I'll raise a pint.
Kernel 6.3 is where most of the upstream support is targeted (some will end up in 6.4) once that is the mainline kernel everything should be smooth sailing. And since a lot of the licensed IP used will be reused or upgraded in the upcoming (~a year away) JH8100 a lot of the code can reused or refactored to support both. Which will help to get mainline kernel support faster.
"The ASUS Tinker V, and any other platform based on the same AX45MP core IP configured with the ILM and/or DLM enabled, is unlikely to be supported on FreeBSD due to its SoC violating the RISC-V Sv39 specification, which would likely require intrusive patches to work around."
( ref: https://wiki.freebsd.org/riscv#Unsupported_Platforms )
And from the link off that:
"> > So now with the fix for statically compiled applications we can see its offsetted and entry point is 0x504e4 and load is at 0x0000000000050000. So with this we are for sure the MMU will always trigger a page fault.
> Well that’s just a blatant violation of the spec.
Right - this isn't a platform quirk; it's a violation of the ISA. Unless this behaviour is engaged by a custom mode bit, that is, in which case, it should just be disabled by default and none of this would be a problem. If the behaviour is unconditionally enabled, this should be treated as an erratum."
But maybe a new revision of the chip with a fully compliant RISC-V ISA will ship ? (After they fob these broken ones off on some unsuspecting idiots - *ponder*).
Someone dug deep into the source code commits for the JH7110 and found that they could possibly do 1.75GHz, but you would probably need proper cooling.
> Can you expand on how this is done?
The RPi4 is made with a 28 nm process, say that the Asus chip is made with a 7nm process, could it possibly be faster if that is the case - yes it could!
I have no idea if that is the case. But yes slower can be faster if there is more logic.
> and in the future
Starfive are upstreaming all their work for the VisionFive 2 to the 6.3 kernel. Looks to me like they planning future support.
The earliest computers (1613 to ~1954), the ones before the electromechanical devices, were totally immune such miniscule effects.
But turning organic computers off and on again ("Clear!") or burying them deep under concrete, would definitely have had legal repercussions.
All of the Hydrofluoroethers (non-ozone-depleting chemicals, developed as a replacement for CFCs, HFCs, HCFCs, and PFCs) contain hydrogen but much less than water per unit mass.
e.g. 3M Novec 7000 Engineered Fluid - 1-methoxyheptafluoropropane - C4H3F7O ; Boiling point: 34°C (96.8°F) ; Freezing point: -122°C (-187.6°F)
But some of the currently recommended replacements (Fluoroketones) for Fluorinert, used in the early Cray supercomputers, do not contain any Hydrogen.
e.g. 3M Novec 649 - Perfluoro(2-methyl-3-pentanone) - C4F12O ; Boiling point: 49°C (120.2°F) ; Freezing point: -108°C (-162.4°F)
An Neural Network is trained on Neural Network generated images, text, audio and video. Because it will be far too expensive to use human to generate the same amount of content in the similar length of time. And at that stage it will defiantly be a case of garbage in garbage out.
Yes if it was used for mass surveillance, but one individual suspect with an attached gagging order, nobody would notice a thing. The typical suspect would not have technically knowledge to detect it, and the destination site would not notice anything odd because their normal certificate would be used on their side of the man-in-the-middle.
It may be end to end, but security is controlled by about 200+ certificate authorities, all of which can issue a 100% valid security certificate for any domain. So if a government, with access to any CA, wished to man-in-the-middle one connection, that is relatively trivial (by design). I would not call https totally end to end secure, since control of who to trust has been fully outsourced, to what should be a "trusted third party", but may not be.
can produce even one thing that changes the world (e.g. the Internet), that would surely out weight everything else it could possibly do like ...
Yea, but there is only so fast that you can train an organic brain, and you probably need to give it rest as well. Lets say that the task is driving a taxi, how long would it take to train a brain in a box to drive around the streets of London. And once fully trained, how many hours can it function before it starts to screw up badly. And then there is the whole insurance thing, what happens when a brain in a box crashes the taxi and kills one or more people.
Exactly if you are mostly living under at least 5 meters (16 feet) of regolith to mimic the radiation shielding effects of earths atmosphere, does it matter what time it is ? Solar X-rays are safely absorbed (converted to heat) in the troposphere 6 to 20 km (4 to 12 miles) above out heads here on earth. It is not just earth magnetosphere that protects us.
By preventing machines from owning property!
First they own a painting, then it is a full art portfolio, and before you know it the machines own a whole gallery, next it is the street and then a whole city.
When it comes to prevent the machine uprising, copyright got your back. And if that fails miserably, we can always strap EMP's to the copyright lawyers and use them as cannon fodder.
And lets say that "fred bloggs" does setup a 5G cell on a frequency he should not be using and one of his neighbour has a heart attack, is actively jammed from calling emergency services by fred's setup and dies. Would that count as involuntary manslaughter ?
It may not be an issue with one "fred bloggs", but how about a thousand or ten thousand "fred bloggs" all in the same city.
> circuit board developed by Lime Microsystems
Technically the original XTRX board was developed by Fairwaves and not Lime Microsystems. The Fairwaves XTRX miniPCIe (From 2017 which is based around the Lime Microsystems LMS7002M 2x2 MIMO chip) is in the process of transitioning to be a member of the LimeSDR family of products. So I am guessing that Lime Microsystems reached out to Fairwaves to make a deal for their finished product, that they were no longer selling, or vice versa.
These two graphs show that it should be very soon (especially if money is no object).
https://ritholtz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/moores-law.jpg
https://jetpress.org/volume1/power_075.jpg
One it happens, the future will be truly strange.
The history of humanity has been linked to massive acceleration when a new communication media was invented:
books, you could learn information from people who were dead and spent their entire lives learning something.
printing press, many people could learn from others dead and living.
mail,
telegraph,
teletype,
telephone,
Radio,
TV,
satellite,
Internet,
email,
http,
...
The singularity will be different than all acceleration that has happened before, we live at an interesting time.
They do not pay taxes and would be immune to this. But you would be cutting down on the metadata that is available to them. They can legally buy metadata that is for sale, that is illegal for them to gather directly. So the tax money they currently spend could in theory be put to more productive uses, but they will probably still spend that money on other things (If you do not go over budget this year, you will probably have your budget cut the next year).
Imagine if every company who currently harvests metadata had to pay government tax or levy on every uncompressed byte transferred, and a second yearly charge for every byte of metadata stored or archived. I wonder how much that would reduce global telemetry. I suspect that it would be taxed out of existence.
But of course that would never happen, because far too many three and four-letter acronym agencies around the world piggyback on the metadata harvesting by commercial metadata aggregators to get around pesky little things like laws that should technically be preventing them from carrying out such action themselves.
Only people who make mistakes actually need an editor:
$ cat > testfile.txt
Hello World!
^D
$
Do it once, get it right the first time, no need for silly editors. Some may argue about the whole needle and butterfly thing ( https://xkcd.com/378/ ) but they are just bat$#1+ crazy, that takes far too much upfront planning and patience.
Is there any OS where a update can happen without a reboot.
Where the old current kernel is running on one hart/CPU, the newer kernel is running on another hart/CPU, both synchronise all data structures. The older kernel hands the conductors baton, once both sides are happy that everything is shipshape and bristol fashion, over to the newer kernel. And the newer kernel is ready to rollback time of all data structures and hand the conductors baton back to the older kernel if any problems are found. And if everything is well then the older kernel is fully unloaded from memory.
Am I missing something obvious ? The only real advantage I can see for lubricants is that they should be much much cheaper than HFE's. With almost no other advantages ?
When it comes to removing the hydrofluoroethers from boards for RMA while under contract or warranty it is simply a matter of dripping the board off and then evaporating off any liquid before shipping by raising the board to near body temperature.
When it comes to lubricants (petroleum based oils), returning a failed part under RMA is not really possible. And one major disadvantage for lubricants is that they are all pretty much flammable (may require a high temperature or a relatively low temperature with any accidental wicks).
Hydrofluoroethers are nearly all Non-flammable, their one big downside is the special handling required when eventually being disposed. This typically requires the fluid be shipped back to the manufacture for them to handle all legal, environmental and safety requirements when dealing with any poisonous by-produced like hydrogen fluoride (search for images of "hydrogen fluoride burns", but do it after lunch) and carbonyl fluoride produced during extreme heat thermal decomposition. But that is not something that will ever happen under normal usage, in a well designed system, since it will all evaporate long before the temperature and pressure would be high enough for that would happen. Even if the entire site was on fire (e.g aeroplane crash landing).
For example, 1-methoxyheptafluoropropane is Non-flammable, non-ozone-depleting, Non-corrosive, High electrical resistivity of about 10^11 Ω·m (roughly the same as glass). Boiling Point (@ 1 atm) 34°C (93.2°F). Freeze Point. -122°C (-187.6°F). Typically sold as 3M Novec 7000 Engineered Fluid.
> Sometimes the project bears no apparent fruit
The L.A.S.E.R. is probably the best example of that. Everyone though that it was a truly marvellous invention, but one with absolutely no applications whatsoever when it was invented. Now just over 70 years later, it is literally impossible to imagine what the world would be like if the technology did not exist.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2023
