Curb on tech exports eased (Bush eases supercomputer export restrictions)

Washington Times ^ | 1/3/01 | Joseph Curl

[truthandlife]

President Bush yesterday more than doubled the limit on the speed of supercomputers that U.S. companies can sell to such countries as China, Pakistan and India, a move critics said endangers U.S. security and puts American troops at risk.

Under the new guidelines, U.S. producers of supercomputers can export hardware capable of running at 190,000 millions of theoretical operations per second without notifying the federal government. The current cap is 85,000 MTOPS.

[truthandlife]

Is this a good thing? Weren't we complaining about Clinton doing the same thing?

[lelio]

"These reforms are needed due to the rapid rate of technological change in the computer industry. Single microprocessors available today - by mail order and the Internet - perform at more than 25 times the speed of supercomputers built in the early 1990s," said White House Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan.
So because you can buy faster stuff on the street we should ease exports of supercomputers? Sorry that doesn't fly and endangers our country. Seems to be to be a subsidy through to the supercomputer manufacturers.
If they can get faster computers on the street (like a linux cluster) they why do they need to get a super one in the first place?

[UnBlinkingEye]

"The president's decision will promote national security, enhance the effectiveness of our export-control system and ease unnecessary regulatory burdens on both government and industry," the White House said in a fact sheet released yesterday.

I thought that traitor Clinton was out of office.

[babygene]

He did the right thing. MTOPS means nothing when it relates to hardware. A Beowulf Cluster can be constructed from old 486 machines and rival super computers for speed. The comerence dept. is way behind the eight ball on thecnology. Check out this site for Beowulf Clusters.... http://cnls.lanl.gov/avalon/

[jungleboy]

It's a sell out! No question about it.

Good-bye cowardly gop, I guess I'll go back to being without a political party...again.

[Nephi]

Wow.
I expected to see several posts explaining why when Bush does it, its different from when Clinton did it.
Amazing.

[Leto]

We have a lot of legacy code written that runs on 'supercomputers' this is a play to keep these companies afloat. The technology has passed these machines by. If the Chicoms invest big bucks in obsolete technology that is their problem. The machines are no longer supercomputers.

In truth the type of weapon designs done through the mid 80's can be done by a run of the mill PC. IT has more storage, memory and a faster cpu than the boxes used to design hbombs in the 80's.

Encryption may be another issue. Don't know enough. Doubt the NSA or Rummy would let the Chicoms get ahold of tech that would let them break our encryption.

[Leto]

We've developed code over the past 30-40 years to run on these machines. It cheaper to buy multimillion dollar boxes to run the old code, than rewrite the code to run on cheaper boxes.

[batter]

This is not a good thing (for details, read Bill Gertz's book "The China Threat"):

Drudge/Bill Gertz Flashback: China uses computers from U.S. illegally; Nuclear facility simulates blasts

[batter]

FYI

[batter]

I don't think there is much excuse for this besides "if we don't do it, other counties will". Unfortunately, I don't buy that excuse. IMO, Bush has made a very bad decision on this one.

[Jason_b]

If you want, you can hang out here . It may be a little better than being without a political party at all, depending on your point of view.

[LarryLied]

No comparison to what Clinton did. First, the People's Republic of China bribed Clinton to ease export controls. Secondly, the technology has advanced to the point where countries can build Cray type machines with off the shelf parts. Saddam is rumored to have purchased hundreds of Sony Playstation 2's to do just that. And controls are still in place for higher power machines. Banning the export of under 190,000 MTOPS makes as much sense as banning handguns. Anyone who wants one can get one no matter what the law is. In fact, the clusters are one tenth to one third the cost of a mainframe and the operating system, Linux, is free. Think China is going to pay the big bucks for a Cray? I don't. They'll build their own.

[batter]

Pakistan's president is also returning to China. China has significantly helpled the Pakistanis develop their nuclear weapons as well as improve their missile technology. Below is a link to a BBC article on Musharraf's upcomming trip and the challenges that face him in China:
Musharraf seeks China's backing
China will also be providing Pakistan with some F-7 fighters:
Pakistan receives new F-7 fighters
Finally, here is another story that came out today:
US concerned over status of radar sale

I guess the US isn't as concerned about super computer sales...
ChiCom Watch

[weikel]

Yep you are right. Technophobes should not comment about tech exports.

[weikel]

Are you a computer expert, programmer, electrical engineer, hacker? Bush made the right decision this will not improve the Chicoms military capability they already got lots of computers back when X42 was in office and can make the chips themselves. The ignorant Islamics can't use computers beyond a basic level and they also have them anyway.

[super175]

There is no use fighting about this. Computer control is about like gun control. It does not work. The whole thing is a facade to pretend like we can control what is going on. Its about like having a gun that is loaded with blanks.

[truthandlife]

BUMP