US eases curbs on supercomputers

["Irfan Khan" <KhanIA@super.net.pk>]

[this applies to India and Pakistan in S Asia] 


US eases curbs on supercomputers 

By Our Staff Correspondent 

WASHINGTON, July 2: The US on Thursday announced relaxation of export 
controls on supercomputers for Pakistan and 100 other countries but 
computer exports for military use would still be strictly controlled 
at lower sophistication levels. 

The announcement was made by Commerce Secretary Daley at a White 
House briefing following pressure from computer giants to increase 
the threshold or the US companies would face a $4bn loss. 

Pakistan was placed on 'Tier-3' list of countries with India, Middle 
East/Maghreb, former Soviet Union, China, Vietnam and part of Eastern 
Europe which have the highest risk of proliferation of nuclear 
weapons. 

For the 50 countries on the list, the threshold would rise to 12,300 
MTOPS (million theoretical operations per second) from 7,000 for 
civilian end-users and to 6,000 MTOPS from 2,000 for military end-
users. 

For the 100 or so Tier-2 countries (most of Latin America, most of 
Southeast Asia, South Korea, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and South 
Africa), the administration would raise the threshold for computers 
requiring export licenses to those performing at 20,000 from 10,000 
MTOPS. 

White House chief of staff John Podesta said rapid increases in 
computing power and rising foreign availability necessitated the 
changes. The new limits will become applicable if Congress does not 
block the changes, and most will take effect within about six months. 

The move comes at a sensitive time, as lawmakers received a report 
last month from California Republican Christopher Cox detailing 
alleged Chinese espionage efforts and use of US computers for 
military projects. 

Under the previous rules, manufacturers had to report every sale of 
machines capable of 2,000 MTOPS to Tier-3 countries that also include 
Israel. The notification rule requires a 10-day delay to sales of 
such computers - a serious disadvantage the manufacturers argued. 

The latest Intel Pentium III microprocessor chips used in millions of 
personal computers are rapidly approaching the two billion operation 
threshold and sales of machines containing multiple chips are well 
above the limit. 

Sales of more powerful machines will still require a full-blown 
license from the government, meaning longer delays. But the 
administration also raised the thresholds in that part of the rules. 

Sales to civilian customers in Tier-3 countries will require a 
license if computers are capable of 12.3 billion operations per 
second, up from seven billion. Sales to military customers will 
require a license over 6.5 billion operations, up from two billion. 

Changes to the Tier-3 military customer export limits cannot go into 
effect for six months under a law passed by Congress two years ago. 
Lawmakers can override the decision during the delay. 

White House officials said they planned to review the export rules 
again in six months but rejected an industry proposal to 
automatically raise the limits based on an index of computer speed or 
availability.

http://www.dawn.com/daily/19990703/top12.htm