Iran using AMD CPUs for rocket research

Posted on Tuesday, June 23 2009 @ 15:11 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
The Aerospace Research Institute of Iran (ARI) announced it has build a high-performance computer for rocket research using dual-core AMD Opteron processors. A paper published by the research institute claims they've build a 192 gigaFLOPS SUSE Linux based HPC system with 96 processor cores, even though a U.S. trade embargo forbids sales of high tech equipment like AMD's server processors.
"It is more than troubling that an Iranian aerospace entity, affiliated with the government and involved in sophisticated missile research and production, is using U.S. computer equipment for its development work," said Valerie Lincy, editor of Iran Watch, a Web site published by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.

In a statement, AMD said that it can't speculate as to how the processors could have been shipped to Iran.

"AMD has never authorized any sales or shipments of AMD products to Iran or any other embargoed country, either directly or indirectly," the company said.
Source: ComputerWorld


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Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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