Outside of the political/military or simply economic tension, the war in Ukraine is showing a devastating canvas in terms of technology. Russia is not going to emerge victorious from this conflict despite the fact that it could win the battle, and that is because a new blockade by Intel and AMD is going to leave the country of Vladimir Putin no processor supply. What are users and companies going to do?
What was a rumor has ended up becoming reality. Intel and AMD cut off any business relationship with Russia and Belarus and force the machinery along with other industries to stop a war that benefits no one except Vladimir Putin and his interests. This will not be an immediate blow to the country, but in the long term it creates a very interesting precedent to analyze: a war, an invasion outside of NATO would mean a total lockdown by governments and companies.
Intel, AMD, Russia, CPUs and the donation campaign
There is not much to add to this barbarity that we do not know today, but as a large company worldwide, Intel moves and its actions will not remain a simple commercial blockade:
“Intel condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and we have suspended all shipments to customers in both Russia and Belarus. Our thoughts are with all who have been affected by this war, including the people of Ukraine and neighboring countries and all those around the world with family, friends and loved ones in the region. We are working to support all of our employees in this difficult situation, especially those with close ties to this region.
That’s why we’ve launched an employee matching and donation campaign through the Intel Foundation that has already raised over $1.2 million in aid, and we’re proud of the work our teams do in surrounding areas, including Poland. , Germany and Romania are doing to help the refugees. We will continue to support the people of Ukraine and the world community in calling for an immediate end to this war and a speedy return to peace.”
AMD follows the same guideline
AMD has expressed itself through a representative of the brand, commenting on the following:
“Based on the sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and other nations, at this time, AMD is suspending sales and distribution of our products in Russia and Belarus. It’s all AMD products and the products we use (PCs, etc.) in Russia and Belarus.”
Is it a serious blow to Russia as a nation? Apparently not. The two companies follow the guidelines set by the new regulations imposed in the US, only now the block for its part is total and not just partial as it was a week ago. Russia relies less and less on the technology of the country of the stars and stripes, it has its own CPU designs such as the BE-S1000X with 48 cores based on RISC-V with ARC Cortex A75 technology at 2 GHz, which would be equivalent to an Intel or AMD CPU from 5 years ago with 16 cores.
In addition, Russia controls raw materials and gas for a large part of the world and unless ARM positions itself, this coup by Intel and AMD may be useless. And it is that Russia has cut off its airspace and now many of the freight flights will have to take longer routes, raising the final cost for the user.
The Russians run out of CPUs, they will have to go abroad to buy them, but the rest of the world will have to bear higher costs.
