There have been growing skepticism about whether the US semiconductor bans and sanctions on China will work or even backfire.
For example, this report:
The US ban on the AI chip, or that Graphics Processing Unit, the GPU, that already was a rather flaky move.
I don't know too much about a GPU today, but back in the old days when they first came out, the whole thing was big. It fit into one of the slots on the motherboard inside the personal computer. The extra chip was needed, the GPU, so the load would lessen on the CPU, so people could play their games.
The same principle here with the AI. The computer with the CPU doing some AI calculation, they can stick in a GPU into the machine to make it go faster.
But there is a salient point I believe. That GPU is an accessory, even though it is a very important accessory. That is why it is called a Graphics Processing Unit and not Central Processing Unit.
The design of the GPU has gotten better over time, but that does not mean China cannot do it. China is a world leader in chip design. So design is not a problem for China. The problem is the hardware to manufacture the chip, blah blah blah.
That was why the GPU ban was odd. What difference will it make? The biggest loser is AMD and Nvidia. They probably going to be the only loser in the long run.
That is why this talk of another ban on server chips for data centers and chips for supercomputing, is even more weird.
If they want to ban the sale of server chips and supercomputing chips to China, that is like saying the Americans do not want to sell any chips to China. This is a total desperation move.
So ... what exactly is a server? If you are using a PC, and get another PC, and use them together, then you got a server configuration going already, install some server software and you're admin!
So ... what exactly is a supercomputer? Seems like that is a computer will a lot of chips inside it! Almost like a server configuration!
Okay, to be fair, server chips are designed to be optimized for those tasks required more of servers, whatever that is. But we can say that about all chips in general. Such as RF chips (radio frequency), or power chips, etc.
This ban on server chips and supercomputing chips is more silly that the ban on the GPU.
The former, could probably be purchased off the shelf. The latter, just design your own.
The only way a chip ban can work against China, is for the Americans to forbid anyone from selling any chip to China.
The irony is that we are moving in that direction because the Chinese cannot fool around with unreliable suppliers, and they got to think for themselves. In the meantime, they still willing to do business, until the day they can cut off the Americans permanently from the China market.
That is why this chip war stuck me as being very odd.
Here we have China working on cutting off the Americans.
In the meantime while they pursue their work in the background, the stop gap measure is to continuing buying chips from the Americans.
And for the most part, the Americans are perfectly fine with that.
Until the day they aren't.
The problem is that for the Americans, is that when that day comes that they realize they are not fine with that anymore, it is already too late.
But they go ahead with the ban anyways, like a total retard. Haha!
If we understand the technology, and what is happening, then this is comedy. It is a total joke.
