Rid your mind of cant - Dr Johnson
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Pentagon makes a pig's ear of trusted chips
AFTER SIX YEARS of trying to break free from its dependence on global chipmakers, the US military still has to buy 98 per cent of its integrated circuits from outside companies.
The Pentagon had decided it was more secure if it built its own chips in secure facilities run by American companies.
But for some reason, despite its best efforts, the Pentagon has found that it can only meet two per cent of its needs using this system.
Now it fears that because it is buying too much off-the-shelf technology, the same viruses that drag people unwillingly to porn sites might drag cruise missiles off course.
The problem has become more noticeable as the major chip makers shift fabs offshore to exploit cheaper labour in foreign countries.
The New York Times points out that only a fifth of all computer chips are now made in the United States and only a quarter of the chips based on the most advanced technologies are built there.
But the Pentagon and the National Security Agency are trying to expand significantly the number of American plants authorised to manufacture chips for the Pentagon's Trusted Foundry program.
However the United States lacks the ability to fulfill the capacity requirements needed to manufacture computer chips for classified systems.
The US defence establishment has rushed to defend its manufacturing strategy which involves a 10-year contract with Big Blue and a certification process that has been extended to 28 American chipmakers and related technology firms.
As with everything the US military-industrial complex does, it seems to involve spending lots of cash. But it's still not filling the country's defence insecurity hole. µ
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Dude. PUT DOWN THE PIPE! Seriously. Your last 2 brain cells are starting to flicker.
You are judging the results on the wrong criteria. Here are the Military and Defense Department employee's priorities:
Do I get free travel?
Do I get free surf and turf?
Do I get free tickets to the super bowl?
Will you hire my kids as a consultants?
and sometimes he makes less sense than normal. In this case, absolutely no sense. I thought he was going to make a comment about Folding@Home, but nope, didn't happen.
They either need to reboot the Drashek bot, or maybe a human Drashek needs a bit more sleep, who knows.
Heres AMD Novemeber Developers newsletter, to Make those DX11 GAMES Just FLY out Window, so to speak.
http://amd-member.com/newsletters/DevCentral/0910.html
Pentagon Tells poor 'ole Ultee' What Can be used, by You & We are Stuck, So FOLD home, As You'll Need Several Supercomputers.
Pentagon Will Only tell You Twice its Short on ManPUower. Then Cattle Shoots Make it obvious, Not Amoung chosen. its too Bad theres so many of Them, GPCpgpuu.
On 11Nov Msr. Mohammed Goes Under for Last Time, Probably DUE to lack of InterNet connection. Maybe get Govs' Fix. Well, both Pentagon & John are in CommonWealth of Virginia. Hey- J.M. got Cheap Chipp'd.It is Cloudy, misty, Drizzly, Season for: PuPPeTTMAstER.
drashek london fog.
One of the main concerns that the military has is with regards to the microcode found in most VLSI processors.
It is possible to slip a trojan horse into the microcode of a CPU or NIC processor destined to a military wholesale supplier. You wouldn't even need to hijack the firmware to do so at boot time.
If the military is really worried about all of this, then it needs to forbid the use of commodity chips at all levels. Avoid FPGA chips, microcode based chips and any kind of civilian standardized interface. Go custom all the way.
Will it cost more? Sure. But just skip the purchase of one stealth bomber, and you've paid for the entire program.
"With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain,
All the riches buried there."
"Now it fears that because it is buying too much off-the-shelf technology, the same viruses that drag people unwillingly to porn sites might drag cruise missiles off course."
Viruses attack badly written software/firmware, not hardware.
Plus even if your cruise missile was running windows 98, it still wouldn't be at risk unless you plugged it into an open network connection, or ran round plugging unchecked USB sticks into it!