Reports are all over the web with the information that the Russian government will be ditching all x86-based processors which means, of course, AMD and Intel.

The report indicates that a number of Russian government-owned companies will collaborate to design a new chip, based on the ARM architecture. These chips will be known as the Baikal chips. It is expected that these will be making their way into all government computers and computers owned by government-owned firms, which in total equates to about 700,000 PCs per annum along with about 300,000 servers.

Exactly what the motives are behind this plan remains unclear, though it is suggested that it may be due to fear of security leaks, despite the report making no mention of that. What the report does clearly state is that the chips from AMD and Intel are American made, which could mean anything.

The Baikal chips, which will first come out as the Baikal M and Baikal M/S chips, will be 64-bit Cortex A-57 chips with eight cores, each clocked at 2.0 GHz. They will be fabricated using a 28 nm lithographic process.

Time will tell how much of this will happen, or whether it is even true in the first place.

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