More U.S. and western European tech companies have reportedly closed their Russian operations: among them Dell, Logitech, Ericsson and Nokia. Another significant update on geopolitical matters is the export ban on some Nvidia and AMD products (see below). However, the effectiveness of sanctions against China is a debated issue – see, for example, this EETimes article – and reverse engineering on a SMIC chip has provided additional surprises: TechInsights has found many similarities in process technologies, designs and innovations between SMIC’s 7-nanometer and TSMC’s 7-nanometer nodes. According to TechInsights, also, it is a notable achievement for SMIC having moved from 14-nanometer to 7-nanometer in just two years, without access to the most advanced western equipment and technologies.
Export restrictions on some advanced Nvidia GPUs and AMD accelerators
Nvidia and AMD have reportedly been told by the US government to halt exports of certain high-performance chips and systems to China. As for Nvidia, the restrictions cover A100 and forthcoming H100 GPUs, and any systems that include them, effective immediately. AMD has reportedly been given new requirements by the US Department of Commerce that will hit shipments of its MI250 accelerator to China. In a regulatory filing, Nvidia said that the export restrictions are due to a potential risk of the products being used by, or diverted to, a “military end user.” Both companies said the new mandate also covers a ban in export to Russia.
