The bloc that Russia is experiencing seems to be coming to an end, but not as Vladimir Putin would like. And it is that the Russian president is focusing his efforts on one of the few reliable allies he has: China, and for this he is going to collect his technology while he continues to design his own. Therefore, the Zhaoxin company and its processors chinese x86 have been chosen to supplant Intel and AMD by Russia.
Coincidences of life, the Dannie company, a major manufacturer of motherboards that develops Zhaoxin platforms, has this week presented a new model that seems to almost perfectly meet the needs of Vladimir Putin and his most basic IT infrastructure. At the same time, the number of units that Dannie can produce per month has been announced, any chance?
Zhaoxin and Dannie, Russia seeks Chinese processors
Currently most Russian infrastructures are x86 based hand in hand with Intel and in some cases with AMD. They range from mega servers to small office and control PCs, so having a replacement for the former is really complex given the computing power of the two large ones, but for the latter it could be somewhat simpler if you have to keep adding units to government bodies.
Therefore the motherboard MBX–Z60A presented is a breath of fresh air for Russia, since with two DDR4 slots, two PCIe x16 as well as two M.2 2280, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and three SATA, the country that Putin presides over has what it takes to continue in the game and that Russia keep rolling.
The problem is that you need a Zhaoxin processor to bring this MBX-Z60A to life, and that’s where China comes in as a geostrategic block at stake. Dannie’s motherboard has a KaiXian KX-6640MA SoC eight-core with interesting features and that logically go hand in hand with your motherboard and therein lies the legal trap. Russia would not buy processors, but motherboards, but of course, the motherboards have the processor welded… Why so much “dissimulation”?
Everyone distances themselves from Russia, fear of reprisals?
China has taken very little part in Russia’s war. Right now they are immersed in a depreciation of their currency, a controlled mortgage and real estate crisis and they are apparently using COVID-19 in its Omicron variant to close and paralyze the industry while they buy much of the Russian gas and oil with discounts of 30%. If you are going to slow down your economy to eliminate inflation and lock up your population alleging a health crisis through a strict COVID ZERO law, why do you buy such an amount of energy?
The Dannie and Zhaoxin option is the only viable one for Russia at the moment and it seems that there is more fabric to be cut under the table, to the point where the processor company has issued a statement with the flavor of being able to avoid a possible conflict:
The company only focuses on business in China. Zhaoxin has no intention Until now to sell their products to other countries. Zhaoxin also sent announcements to its partners to emphasize company policy and ensure that they understand Zhaoxin’s policy.
China’s coup is taking place in silence and it seems that they do not want to enter into conflicts, but the agreements between these two superpowers are clear: China needs energy at low prices, Russia needs technology under the table and logically depends on the Asian country for x86 infrastructure , albeit poorly performing.
The objective is not to compete, the objective is to buy time in both cases, where the Russian side is obvious and the one that is frightening comes from the yellow side, since it is going to earn succulent profits with these hidden sales where a week it will be able to produce tens of thousands of these motherboards in its territory towards the cold of Siberia.
