U.S. inks bill to force geo-tracking tech for high-end gaming and AI GPUs
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In the United States, a bill has been proposed to mandate geolocation tracking of all high-end graphics cards. This was supposedly meant to monitor Chinese imports of Nvidia GPUs for AI-related purposes.
Last week, a U.S. congressman announced a plan to introduce a bill that would mandate producers of high-performance AI processors to track them geographically in a bid to limit their usage by unauthorized foreign actors, such as China. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas then introduced a legislative measure later in the week. The bill covers hardware that goes way beyond just AI processors, and would give the Commerce Secretary power to verify the location of hardware, and put mandatory location controls on commercial companies. To make matters even more complicated, geo-tracking features would be required for high-performance graphics cards as well.
The bill covers a wide range of products classified as 3A090, 4A090, 4A003.z, and 3A001.z export control classification numbers (ECCNs), so advanced processors for AI, AI servers (including rack-scale solutions), HPC servers, and general-purpose electronics of strategic concern due to potential military utility or dual-use risk. It should be noted that many high-end graphics cards (such as Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 5090) are also classified as a 3A090 product, so it looks like such add-in-boards will also have to add geo-tracking capabilities.
The first and central provision of the bill is the requirement for tracking technology to be embedded in any high-end processor module or device that falls under the U.S. export restrictions. This condition would take effect six months after the legislation is enacted, which will make the lives of companies like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia harder, as adding a feature to already developed products is a tough task. The mechanism must allow verification of a chip's or device's physical location, enabling the U.S. government to confirm whether it remains at the approved endpoint. Yet, exporters would be obliged to keep track of their products.
While this won't impact most consumers, I am concerned that a successful passage of this bill may warrant a examination of our hardware requirements. Again, this is more of a wait-and-see situation rather than genuine panic for tech enthusiasts.
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In the United States, a bill has been proposed to mandate geolocation tracking of all high-end graphics cards. This was supposedly meant to monitor Chinese imports of Nvidia GPUs for AI-related purposes.
Last week, a U.S. congressman announced a plan to introduce a bill that would mandate producers of high-performance AI processors to track them geographically in a bid to limit their usage by unauthorized foreign actors, such as China. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas then introduced a legislative measure later in the week. The bill covers hardware that goes way beyond just AI processors, and would give the Commerce Secretary power to verify the location of hardware, and put mandatory location controls on commercial companies. To make matters even more complicated, geo-tracking features would be required for high-performance graphics cards as well.
The bill covers a wide range of products classified as 3A090, 4A090, 4A003.z, and 3A001.z export control classification numbers (ECCNs), so advanced processors for AI, AI servers (including rack-scale solutions), HPC servers, and general-purpose electronics of strategic concern due to potential military utility or dual-use risk. It should be noted that many high-end graphics cards (such as Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 5090) are also classified as a 3A090 product, so it looks like such add-in-boards will also have to add geo-tracking capabilities.
The first and central provision of the bill is the requirement for tracking technology to be embedded in any high-end processor module or device that falls under the U.S. export restrictions. This condition would take effect six months after the legislation is enacted, which will make the lives of companies like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia harder, as adding a feature to already developed products is a tough task. The mechanism must allow verification of a chip's or device's physical location, enabling the U.S. government to confirm whether it remains at the approved endpoint. Yet, exporters would be obliged to keep track of their products.
While this won't impact most consumers, I am concerned that a successful passage of this bill may warrant a examination of our hardware requirements. Again, this is more of a wait-and-see situation rather than genuine panic for tech enthusiasts.
Do… Do they think China has no Electric Engineers? Short of making a fully attested GPS chip and tightly binding the firmware blob to that like Apple does with its stuff, defeating any solution is a 10 cent chip and five minutes of soldering away.
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In the United States, a bill has been proposed to mandate geolocation tracking of all high-end graphics cards. This was supposedly meant to monitor Chinese imports of Nvidia GPUs for AI-related purposes.
Last week, a U.S. congressman announced a plan to introduce a bill that would mandate producers of high-performance AI processors to track them geographically in a bid to limit their usage by unauthorized foreign actors, such as China. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas then introduced a legislative measure later in the week. The bill covers hardware that goes way beyond just AI processors, and would give the Commerce Secretary power to verify the location of hardware, and put mandatory location controls on commercial companies. To make matters even more complicated, geo-tracking features would be required for high-performance graphics cards as well.
The bill covers a wide range of products classified as 3A090, 4A090, 4A003.z, and 3A001.z export control classification numbers (ECCNs), so advanced processors for AI, AI servers (including rack-scale solutions), HPC servers, and general-purpose electronics of strategic concern due to potential military utility or dual-use risk. It should be noted that many high-end graphics cards (such as Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 5090) are also classified as a 3A090 product, so it looks like such add-in-boards will also have to add geo-tracking capabilities.
The first and central provision of the bill is the requirement for tracking technology to be embedded in any high-end processor module or device that falls under the U.S. export restrictions. This condition would take effect six months after the legislation is enacted, which will make the lives of companies like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia harder, as adding a feature to already developed products is a tough task. The mechanism must allow verification of a chip's or device's physical location, enabling the U.S. government to confirm whether it remains at the approved endpoint. Yet, exporters would be obliged to keep track of their products.
While this won't impact most consumers, I am concerned that a successful passage of this bill may warrant a examination of our hardware requirements. Again, this is more of a wait-and-see situation rather than genuine panic for tech enthusiasts.
Ironic given that I just read something about PRC silicon research outstripping US research in both quantity and quality.
We really need to elect some younger and/or more tech savvy folks to public office in this ridiculous country.
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Do… Do they think China has no Electric Engineers? Short of making a fully attested GPS chip and tightly binding the firmware blob to that like Apple does with its stuff, defeating any solution is a 10 cent chip and five minutes of soldering away.
Also ummm.. Do they know China makes all those boards.
Hey Foxconn... The US wants us to add GPS trackers so we won't beat them in AI wars Make sure the GPS sends a ping every 5 cycles of each GPU chip.
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Also ummm.. Do they know China makes all those boards.
Hey Foxconn... The US wants us to add GPS trackers so we won't beat them in AI wars Make sure the GPS sends a ping every 5 cycles of each GPU chip.
I wonder if GPS would even work INSIDE the servers INSIDE data centres.
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Also ummm.. Do they know China makes all those boards.
Hey Foxconn... The US wants us to add GPS trackers so we won't beat them in AI wars Make sure the GPS sends a ping every 5 cycles of each GPU chip.
Not True, the chips are made in Taiwan
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Not True, the chips are made in Taiwan
I think he refers to the PCB, that is true that china make most PCBs, just not all of them.
According to a hi res image on H100, the PCB seems made in Taiwan. However, the origin could change betweem taping out and mass production stage, or even between revisions.
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