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blue-wave

(4,352 posts)
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 01:56 AM Jun 2022

Taiwan Restricts Russia, Belarus to CPUs Under 25 MHz Frequency

No more Taiwan-made CPUs, microcontrollers for Russia and Belarus.

From now on, Russian and Belarusian entities can only buy CPUs operating at below 25 MHz and offering performance of up to 5 GFLOPS from Taiwanese companies. This essentially excludes all modern technology, including microcontrollers for more or less sophisticated devices.

Due to restrictions imposed on exports to Russia by the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union, leading Taiwanese companies were among the first to cease working with Russia after the country started full-scale war against Ukraine in late February. This week Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) formally published its list of high-tech products that are banned from exportation to Russia and Belarus, which prevents all kinds of Taiwan-produced high-tech devices as well as tools used to make chips (whether or not they use technologies originated from the U.S., U.K., or E.U., which were already covered by restrictions) to be exported to the aggressive nation.

Items banned from exportation to Russia and Belarus are pursuant to Category 3 to Category 9 of Wassenaar Arrangement, which covers electronics, computers, telecommunications, sensors, lasers, navigation equipment, maritime technology, navigation, avionics, jet engines, and a number of other categories.

Since the arrangement was adopted by 42 states in the mid-1990s, the restrictions may seem a bit archaic when it comes to computers and electronics, but this actually makes them even more severe for Russia and Belarus (the country used to help its neighbor to get around sanctions).

Starting today, Russian entities cannot buy chips that meet one of the following conditions from Taiwanese companies, reports DigiTimes:

Has performance of 5 GFLOPS. To put it into context, Sony's PlayStation 2 released in 2000 had peak performance of around 6.2 FP32 GFLOPS.
Operates at 25 MHz or higher.
Has an ALU that is wider than 32 bits.
Has an external interconnection with a data transfer rate of 2.5 MB/s or over.
Has more than 144 pins.
Has basic gate propagation delay time of less than 0.4 nanosecond.

More Here: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/taiwan-restricts-exports-of-25mhz-cpus-to-russia


Nothing 25 MHz or higher? It's my understanding that 25 MHz is at about the speed of a 486 computer. Remember those? This is like throwing them back to the stone ages in computer terms.

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Taiwan Restricts Russia, Belarus to CPUs Under 25 MHz Frequency (Original Post) blue-wave Jun 2022 OP
BSOD dweller Jun 2022 #1
I got an old 386 I can sell them COL Mustard Jun 2022 #2
Does this actually matter? quakerboy Jun 2022 #3

quakerboy

(13,919 posts)
3. Does this actually matter?
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 03:41 AM
Jun 2022

If China maintains normal trade with Russia, and Taiwan continue to maintain normal trade with China, isnt this just adding a middleman to the process of supplying Russia?

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