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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Chicoms say they need IBM supercomputer for Olympics weather forecasts |
| 2007-08-31 |
| From East Asia Intel, subscription. China has used its hosting of next summer's Olympic Games to justify the purchase an IBM supercomputer with military applications ostensibly to aid in weather forecasting. And once you forecast the oleo-lympic weather, wacha gonna do about it? The IBM computer is a System p575 and is capable of ultra high-speed computing. China’s government does not distinguish between military and civilian production, and the computer likely could aid nuclear weapons testing and missile and other armaments development, said U.S. officials opposed to the sale. IBM defended the sale saying the computer was built and intended for weather forecasting purposes, and that all export rules were followed. And besides, we need the money. "The IBM supercomputer will allow for much more fine numerical weather forecasting for the Beijing area during the Olympics and afterwards," said Liu Xulin, director of the Beijing Meteorological Information Center. Said one U.S. China hand: “If anyone truly believes that China needs this supercomputer for Olympic weather forecasts, I have a time-share at a Starbucks in the Forbidden City that I'm trying to sell.” Cannot blame the Chicoms for trying. We have thousands of people willing to sell out this country for the not-so-almighty dollar. |
| Posted by:Alaska Paul |
| #3 Let's examine what other applications such powerful supercomputing machines can be used for: 1.) Simulation of nuclear explosions 2.) Space vehicle design 3.) Nuclear weapons aging test and verification 4.) Encryption and decryption including code-breaking 5.) Missile trajectory and incoming track analysis 6.) Design of genetically engineered biochemical compounds 7.) Virtual reality combat training environments 8.) Ultra-complex integrated circuit design and simulation 9.) Emulation of advanced software designs like massively-parallel systems 10.) High speed DSP (Digital Signal Processing) for anti-jamming defeats 11.) Broadband surveillance of telecom traffic 12.) Interception and analysis of high speed military satellite downlinks Those are just one dozen that I can think of off the top of my head. For the nonce, we'll ignore how global weather prediction represents a crucial tool in wartime strategy calculations. Every single one of those listed applications would represent a tremendous advance in military capability for the PLA. IBM should be admonished with respect to its greed and disregard for national security in supporting what amounts to the transfer of a vital technology to China. You could bet any amount of money that one of the CPU modules would mysteriously "break" and need replacement within weeks of the installation. That module would not be returned to IBM and be subjected to reverse engineering by the Chinese. This would serve as the basis for a quantum leap in their machine design abilities and save China decades of industrial R&D worth several billion dollars. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-08-31 16:20 |
| #2 Remind me again - when did AlGore and the Clintons get on the IBM board? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-08-31 14:44 |
| #1 Lenin always said we'd sell him the rope... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-08-31 13:48 |