Russian government dumps Intel & AMD in favor of homemade chips
28 Jun 2014 • engadget.comRussia’s policy on Western technology is clear: It can live without it, especially if key issues like economic sanctions, NSA spying and GPS cooperation aren’t resolved to its satisfaction. It looks like this tough stance extends to US-designed computer chips too, as a Russian business newspaper is reporting that state departments and state-run companies will no longer purchase PCs built around Intel or AMD processors. Instead, starting in 2015, the government will order up to one million devices annually based on the “Baikal” processor, which is manufactured by a domestic company called T-Platforms.
Crazy but understandable. Born and raised in the US it’s easy to forget it’s a big world out there and that AMD and Intel are really the sole suppliers of Intel-compatible CPU chips to the entire world.