Economy
What’s a Supercomputer? How US will decide who to punish with China tech curbs
Choosing who gets hurt by sweeping new U.S. curbs on selling technology to China will drop in part to what is considered a “supercomputer,” experts told.
Across the Globe, the semiconductor firm on Friday, 7 October started to wrestle with wide-ranging U.S. restrictions on selling chips and chip-making equipment to China.
Shares of chip equipment makers drooped, but industry experts said a new U.S. definition of a supercomputer could be crucial to the new rules’ impact on China.
Supercomputers can be used in developing nuclear weapons and other military techniques, and experts say how to define them has long bedeviled regulators trying to pin down an ever-advancing technological target.
The new American rules define supercomputers broadly in terms of computing power in a defined space: a machine with 100 petaflops – the ability to carry out 100 trillion operations per second – in 41,600 cubic feet, with some other caveats.
Senior government officials said in a media briefing that their intention was to target only China’s most advanced systems that could represent a national security threat to the U.S. rather than commercial activity.
But experts wondered whether Chinese tech giants’ densely packed data centers owned by the likes of Alibaba Group Holding (9988.HK) or TikTok-owner ByteDance might soon reach supercomputer status based on the new definition, even if that is not what U.S. regulators intended.
“Data center build-outs like Alibaba or ByteDance would have the potential to reach petaflop build-outs,” said CCS Insight chip analyst Wayne Lam.
The new meaning is unlikely to change as industry technology improves. Current-day Chinese supercomputers may one day become the corporate standard, but they will still face the limits imposed Friday to stop any chip made with U.S. equipment or technology from going into China. Companies “may very well run into supercomputing limitations within the next couple of years,” Lam said.
Jack Dongarra, an expert in computer science who helps lead a group called TOP500 that ranks the world’s fastest supercomputers, said he disagreed with the static definition.
“The issue is that the definition of a supercomputer will change over time,” he said by email.
Major Chinese companies with big data centers such as Baidu, Alibaba and ByteDance did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Tencent declined to comment.
The meaning of computing power per cubic foot also may offer room for creative workarounds. For instance, said one expert, use fiber optic cables to tie together immense computing power over a larger space.
“They could spread their supercomputers out over a larger space,” said one chip and data center expert who requested anonymity due to the politically charged nature of the new rules.
“The average supercomputer architect would say, ‘That’s not how things are done!’ But not being able to do it another way breeds a lot of creativity, and willingness to do things differently.”
In November, the overall point-to-point inflation rate in the country exhibited a marginal decline to 9.49 percent, attributed primarily to decreases in both food and non-food inflation.
The monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) reported a general inflation rate of 9.93 percent in October. Specifically, food inflation decreased to 10.76 percent in November from 12.56 percent in October, while non-food inflation saw a slight dip to 8.16 percent from the 8.30 percent recorded in the previous month.
Breaking down the data, the rural areas experienced a slight decrease in the overall inflation rate to 9.62 percent in November, down from 9.99 percent in October. Similarly, urban areas witnessed a decline in the general inflation rate to 9.16 percent in November, compared to 9.72 percent in October.
The national wage index rate for November increased to 7.72 percent, showing a slight uptick from the 7.69 percent reported in October.
Export earnings for the current fiscal year (FY24) from July to November reached $22,232.28 million, marking a 1.30 percent growth compared to the same period last year, according to the latest data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
In the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year (FY23), export earnings amounted to $21,946.07 million. However, there was a notable decline in single-month export earnings for November, witnessing a 6.05 percent fall, reaching $4,784.81 million, as opposed to $5,092.56 million in November of the previous year.
The Ready-Made Garments (RMG) sector remained the primary contributor to export earnings during July-November, securing $18,835.65 million. Within this category, knitwear exports accounted for $10,989.42 million, followed by woven garments at $7,846.23 million.
Notable performances in other exportable categories during the July-November period include primary commodities at $601.42 million, agriculture products at $420.59 million, manufactured commodities at $21,630.86 million, plastic products at $92.60 million, leather and leather products at $427.02 million, jute and jute goods at $361.91 million, and specialized technologies [remaining text not provided].
The Foreign Minister, in a meeting today with the outgoing Kosovo ambassador Güner Ureya, urged Kosovo to recruit skilled human resources and consider importing high-quality readymade garments and pharmaceuticals from Bangladesh. The ambassador paid a farewell call on the Foreign Minister at the foreign ministry this afternoon.
During the meeting, the Foreign Minister commended the ambassador for actively advancing bilateral relations and emphasized the importance of enhancing people-to-people contact for stronger mutual relations. The outgoing envoy, in turn, expressed appreciation for Bangladesh’s progress and development across various sectors. Additionally, the envoy briefed the Foreign Minister on the shared interest of business communities in both Bangladesh and Kosovo to boost trade and investment between the two countries.
Discussions also encompassed topics such as women empowerment and the necessity of peace for sustainable development. The outgoing envoy lauded the people, culture, and the beauty of Bangladesh.
