patth@ccnysci.UUCP (Patt Haring) (06/26/89)
Ported to USENET from UNITEX NETWORK via UNITEX BBS: 201-795-0733 We want ** your ** news bulletins: (FAX: 212-787-1726 : Attention: James Waldron, Ph.D.) or ...!uunet!rutgers!rubbs!unitex To subscribe to the UNITEX mailing list, send your subscription request to: unitex-request@rubbs.UUCP SOUTH AFRICA: Apartheid System Gets Supercomputer Technology Johannesburg, June 21, 1989 (AIA) -- As technology transfer continues unscathed by sanctions and disinvestment, South Africa's computer industry has started to gain access to a generation of "supercomputers" using British and USA products. Acquisition of the supercomputers is seen as a strategic success in the battle to get round sanctions. The machines increase the effectiveness of research and development aimed at making apartheid structures more efficient and designing more advanced products with military applications. One source of the leading edge technology has come with the announcement that the government controlled Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will spin off the results of its own supercomputer project to the private sector. The new computer system is based on "parallel processing technology". Computer scientists in Europe and North America have been experimenting with the concept. Scientific exchanges with South Africans have made the local advance possible. The South African computer, called "Massively Concurrent Computer" (MCC), uses a "transputer" provided by the British processing chip maker Inmos. The "transputer" allows clusters of processors to be linked together and work simultaneously to achieve hitherto unheard of speeds of computation. With the transputer the new processor configuration can be bolted into existing mini-computers and micro-computers. Government and private sector scientists say the combination of super-computing capabilities and existing mini/micro- computers is most appropriate for South Africa because imported technology is becoming increasingly expensive and sanctions may make access to the technology all but impossible in the future. The MCC gives the apartheid military and economic system a technology that will upgrade existing systems to supercomputer standards. CSIR is forming a new company to manufacture the technology in partnership with the local representative of Inmos, Allied Technologies (Altech). Altech is a sister company to Allied Electronics which purchased, through its Fintech subsidiary, the South African subsidiary of National Cash Register (NCR) when the United States company disinvested earlier this year. Industry observers say Altech will use its own subsidiary, Electronic Building Elements (EBE), to handle the MMC project. EBE spokesmen are blunt about the project, saying the parallel computing technology will make South Africa "less vulnerable to sanctions". Disregard for sanctions by the United States Department of Commerce has ensured access to another strain of supercomputers. The machine in question is a Convex C-120 mini-computer. The processor delivers much of the computing power available in the world's largest computers (made by the Cray company) in a package costing less than R2 million (CDN $1 million). Convex has designed software based on the popular Unix operating system which can run more than 350 commercially available programmes, translate software originally written for the huge Cray machines, and simulate the operations of the DEC VAX mini-computer popular with science and engineering sectors. Two machines have been delivered to the universities of Stellenbosch (outside Cape Town) and Witwatersrand (Johannesburg). The computers are set for use by researchers working in mechanical engineering, computational chemistry and geophysics. In order to give the export licence, US Department of Commerce officials had to be satisfied that the technology transfer would not have military applications. However, at Stellenbosch alone the Bureau for Mechanical Engineering is financed by private industry. Aeronautical research is a speciality at the Bureau. There are suspicions that the computer could be used in schemes related to the development of a new fighter-bomber aircraft by arms companies serving the South African Air Force (SAAF). Both computer systems will aid research and manufacturing in the computer and electronics markets which are launching a new period of growth and export. Computer industry officials speaking at the 1989 South Africa Computer Faire say companies are developing "niche markets" locally and abroad. South Africa is seen as specialising in two areas: software application and computerised armaments. * Origin: AlterNet Better World Communications (1:163/113) -- unitex - via FidoNet node 1:107/520 UUCP: ...!rutgers!rubbs!unitex ARPA: unitex@rubbs.FIDONET.ORG -- Patt Haring | Vote * YES * for creation of rutgers!cmcl2!ccnysci!patth | misc.headlines.unitex patth@ccnysci.BITNET | email votes to: patth@ccnysci.UUCP
eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (06/27/89)
I don't regard Transputer arrays as supercomputers, so from the standpoint
that its just another computer I don't feel to bad about this. They aren't
going to be tagging people using these machines. From
the standpoint that they get embargoed computers at all, this is a tragedy.
Then, most any computer can be used in the design of weapons systems, etc.
Another gross generalization from
--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov
resident cynic at the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers:
"You trust the `reply' command with all those different mailers out there?"
"If my mail does not reach you, please accept my apology."
{ncar,decwrl,hplabs,uunet}!ames!eugene
Live free or die.martillo@cpoint.UUCP (Joachim Carlo Santos Martillo) (06/29/89)
In article <2361@ccnysci.UUCP> patth@ccnysci.UUCP (Patt Haring) writes: >Ported to USENET from UNITEX NETWORK via > UNITEX BBS: 201-795-0733 >SOUTH AFRICA: Apartheid System Gets Supercomputer Technology >Johannesburg, June 21, 1989 (AIA) -- As technology transfer >continues unscathed by sanctions and disinvestment, South >Africa's computer industry has started to gain access to a >generation of "supercomputers" using British and USA >products. . . . >The new computer system is based on "parallel processing >technology". Computer scientists in Europe and North America >have been experimenting with the concept. Scientific >exchanges with South Africans have made the local advance >possible. I can't think of a better way to misdirect South African research and cause the South Africans to waste money. No one has solved the problem of automatic parallelization and distribution of code between multiple processors. Meanwhile, uniprocessor keep getting faster and more powerful. Rather than building this ridiculous multiprocessor systems, they should be putting money into researching the parallelization problem which can be researched just as well on a network of loosely coupled PCs (although actual distribution of the program might change because of different network latency). . . . >The MCC gives the apartheid military and economic system a >technology that will upgrade existing systems to >supercomputer standards. And which will perform miserably by anybody's standards. . . . >EBE spokesmen are blunt about the project, saying the >parallel computing technology will make South Africa "less >vulnerable to sanctions". They should take a look and see what happened to all the minisuper computer firms. Maybe Apartheid will go the same way as Cydrome (a minisupercomputer firm heavily backed by Prime Computer, a firm whose top management clearly understands high-tech trends and developments). . . . . >Two machines have been delivered to the universities of >Stellenbosch (outside Cape Town) and Witwatersrand >(Johannesburg). The computers are set for use by researchers >working in mechanical engineering, computational chemistry >and geophysics. >In order to give the export licence, US Department of >Commerce officials had to be satisfied that the technology >transfer would not have military applications. Which in fact may be true -- at least any sane designer would try to avoid incorporating such technology into military equipment. >However, at Stellenbosch alone the Bureau for Mechanical >Engineering is financed by private industry. Aeronautical >research is a speciality at the Bureau. There are suspicions >that the computer could be used in schemes related to the >development of a new fighter-bomber aircraft by arms >companies serving the South African Air Force (SAAF). . . . >Computer industry officials speaking at the 1989 South Africa >Computer Faire say companies are developing "niche markets" >locally and abroad. South Africa is seen as specialising in >two areas: software application and computerised armaments. Access to tightly coupled multiprocessor supercomputers is irrelevant to developing expertise in these areas. In general it probably would not be a bad idea to make more of this technology available (at astronomical prices of course) to people and countries which the US dislikes.