China trying to get tech credibility by restricting exports of supercomputers made using Intel chips? Hilarious.
I'm from Europe and I can see what's happening. China starts making progress so US starts jeering every twist and turn. Give it a rest already. Same happened way back with Japan and all the jokes made back then.
Here's a story from 2011 about the Chinese building a supercomputer based on its own tech. Name me how many countries have done that? So, can I just ask HN comment people to please stop with the comments like this, it's gone beyond tiresome to annoying.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/world/asia/china-unveils-s...
So am I, but your parent is not being sardonically racist at all.
The suggestion that they'd be banning the export of Intel processors is dumb.
The "Hilarious" is just icing. To me the whole comment smacks of racism. What would you call it? I knew I'd get down-voted for saying it, and I've held my tongue in the past. But it's nearly every article about China now. These sardonic off-the-cuff remarks. It's so accepted here, and it shouldn't be. So I'm calling it out.
China doesn't export CPU processors, they import from Intel like everyone else. I believe there is a fab in Singapore, but I'm not sure what generation they are at. There is a testing facility in chengdu, at least.
This article suggests that there are numerous Chinese companies trying to make the grade: "Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), Shanghai Huali Microelectronics (HLMC), Shanghai HuaHong NEC Electronics Company (HHNEC), Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing and Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (ASMC)"
http://qz.com/72542/china-just-surpassed-the-us-in-semicondu...
> "McKinsey’s proprietary research indicates that more than 50 percent of PCs, and between 30 and 40 percent of embedded systems (commonly found in automotive, commercial, consumer, industrial, and medical applications), contain content designed in China,"
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet...
> "Compared to 2008, consumption of semiconductor materials in North America is down $250 million to $4.74 billion, while in China consumption has shot up 42% to $5.07 billion."
But they are still way behind on process. I believe its 35-50 nm, while Intel, the Koreans, and the Taiwanese right now are at 14 nm. If you are building the world's fastest super computer, you are putting Intel or similarly fabbed chips in there...they are not putting their own chips in!
Then there is also the problem of having their own designs to fab. There was a big scandal a few years back where the "native microprocessor" was actually based on an old design that some professor stole from a company in the states!
So if they want a supercomputer right now (or frankly at any point in the coming decade or so), they need to do it with chips fabbed in the west. So restricting "export" of that technology back to the west does seem kinda funny to me. No?
IMO the restriction on exports at this point isn't too important besides notifying everyone else, including you, China can produce chips and can produce supercomputers too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_economy[*]
That metric is Gross Domestic Product by Purchasing Power Parity, or GDP (PPP). The IMF and CIA Factbook use it as a measure. Economies can be measured in many ways. By GDP alone, which I agree is the more common measure, China is not the largest -- though all indicators point that it soon will be by this measure also.
http://www.euronews.com/2014/12/09/the-american-century-come...
* Wikipedia data drawn from IMF.
What is the largest?
The EU if you count it as a country, otherwise the USA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28no...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PP...
EDIT: Reply to below:
You're talking from your Beijing experience and I'm talking from my visiting relatives in Shunde experience...Maybe it'll be hard for us to agree. Rents, Food, Public Transport, Clothing, Education are all quite cheap compared to the U.S. and those goods are what enable people to carry out their day to day lives. Walmart made-in-china goods are naturally cheaper in China than in U.S. House prices, Car taxes, Luxury taxes are part of government policy in managing monetary policy and exchange rates with the U.S. and has as much relevance as the nominal GDP - not much when you're measuring the average person's income and the goods and services they can purchase. And remember, China's population is several times that of the U.S.
Quality goods in China are expensive period. If you are in a second or third tier city, its even worse. We schedule trips to Hong Kong for shopping...we aren't the only ones also! Cars are expensive all over China as they are heavily taxed. Only food could be considered a bit cheaper, but you have to avoid the low end completely over food safety concerns (e.g. gutter oil).
All in all, I would save money by moving back to Seattle, I think. More to pay in rent, but houses are cheaper to buy, food is more expensive, but groceries would be cheaper. Taxis are much more expensive, but I could actually own my own car and park it legally without paying a whole bunch of money.
It is however limited when comparing the size of national economies; GDP PPP is designed to compare the purchasing power of the citizens of one country against those of another country rather than the total size of national economies.
But by selling a hamburger in the US, you can buy several hamburgers in China...?
Why is this a dumb suggestion? The article does not specify, nor does the PR release by china.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2015-08/01/c_134469932...
Right behind the European Union.
To get to the the heart of this, you probably would need to find a European leftist to talk with. I am writing this under the assumption that /u/igravious is one. Or, he could just be a bit of a jerk.