The Clinton Administration says it will put new proposals regarding the export of supercomputers outside the US before Congress by June 30. Some industry watchers have suggested that the Commerce Department is preparing to lift restrictions on sales to most countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. However, if the unconfirmed suggestions are correct, then the administration will not ease restrictions on China and almost 50 other countries.
Under the US government’s 1996 rules on computer exports, a four- tier system governs sales of powerful computer systems to other nations. Firms exporting to tier one nations, basically the countries in the NATO alliance, do not require a license. Devices that can perform over 10,000 million theoretical operations per second (MTOPS) need a license to be sold to tier two countries, which are generally Latin American and Central European nations that are considered good trading partners. Countries such as China and Israel, which are considered tier three states, can be sold devices rated between 2,000 and 7,000 MTOPS for civilian purposes, with the approval of the US government. However, military sales would require a license. Tier four countries are states considered rouge nations by the US, such as Iran and Iraq, the government will not license technology exports to these countries.
Paula Collins, a spokesperson for the Computer Coalition for Responsible Exports (CCRE) – a body that represents 11 major computer manufacturers and four trade bodies – says that rules as they stand are outdated and harmful to competition. The technology has far outpaced the regulations, Collins said, pointing out that a Pentium III had a 1,300 MTOPS rating, so a two processor workstation using those chips would, in theory, need government approval to be sold to tier three state. All this stuff is sold by our competitors anyway, so what’s the point? she questioned. Major supercomputer manufacturers such as SGI, Sun Microsystems Inc and Intel Corp are members of the CCRE. However, after the recent scandal concerning a congressional committee allowing prohibited technology sales to China, the government may not be so keen to back down on relaxing restrictions on exports to the Chinese.
