Russia To Replace AMD/Intel CPUs With 64-bit ARM Hardware

I heard a few days ago when getting into Russia from a contact that the Kremlin was looking to get rid of AMD and Intel CPUs on the basis that they're manufactured in the United States. That information has now been publicly announced and it appears they want to replace the AMD/Intel hardware with 64-bit ARM designs.

Initially this abandonment of Intel/AMD CPUs only appears to be aimed at government/state-owned systems and in the near-term aren't any plans to abolish US-made hardware or any import bans. The new Russian-made processors are called "Baikal" and designed by T-Platforms in cooperation with Rostec and Rosnano. The Baikal name for the processor is in reference to Lake Baikal, the deepest fresh water lake in the world.

The first Baikal chips are said to be 64-bit Cortex-A57 designs that run at 2GHz, but no core count information or other details were shared in the article now being widely cited at ITS-TASS.com. The Baikal hardware should begin appearing in 2015.

Once the Russian-made Baikal chips are available, you can bet to find Phoronix Test Suite numbers on OpenBenchmarking.org.

For strict security enthusiasts believing AMD and Intel have been compromised by the NSA or other US agencies, it's time to celebrate.