Capable of supporting 768GB of DDR4-3200 ECC memory and five PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, however, this motherboard is unlikely to be widely deployed due to the low availability of Baikal CPUs.
The Russian media Cnews reports that the company Eliptech has designed a new motherboard, the ET113-MB, for the SoC Baikal BE-S1000. It manages up to 768 GB of DDR4-3200 ECC memory and offers five PCIe 4.0 x16 slots. Remember that the Baikal-S CPU, engraved in 16 nm, has 48 Arm Cortex-A75 cores. In addition to the aforementioned features, this motherboard, in SSI MEB format, has a USB 2.0 controller, two GbE ports, four U2 connectors and various I/Os.
This motherboard has some interesting features (note that Elpitech is a former subsidiary of Sberbank, a state bank and the country’s main cloud service provider). However, the Baikal processors, initially manufactured by TSMC, are no longer produced due to the sanctions taken by several countries, including Taiwan, once morest Russia. Thus, this motherboard may well remain at the conceptual stage, for lack of SoC Baikal.
Intel and Microsoft reportedly resumed supporting their products in Russia
Russia manages to maintain supply channels via Turkey and Hong Kong in particular
Russia’s ability to manufacture its own chips is severely limited. Nevertheless, the country would manage, despite the sanctions, to maintain a supply of electronic chips, in particular for the army, according to a Archyde.com article published a little over a month ago. In particular, the newspaper reports there that in March 2022, a new company, Azu International Ltd Sti, arose in the Turkish company register. Presented as a “wholesaler in computer products”, it would ship chips to Russia for several months.
Specifically, according to Archyde.com, Russia purchased at least $2.6 billion in computer and electronic components between March and November 2022. Above all, at least $777 million of these products would come from Western companies: from Intel, from ‘AMD, Texas Instruments Inc., or the German company Infineon AG. Besides the Turkish channel, Hong Kong would play a key role in Russian supply.
Regarding Intel, Archyde.com journalists for example found “that at least $457 million worth of Intel products arrived in Russia between April 1 and October 31, 2022”; and you can see it on the diagram below, these sales have increased over the months.
To qualify, the newspaper quotes this statement from a US Department of Commerce spokesperson: “Since the start of the invasion, Russia’s access to semiconductors from all sources has been reduced by nearly 70 % thanks to the actions of the unprecedented coalition of 38 nations that came together to respond to the aggression of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. It is not surprising that Russia is trying to get around the restrictions. »
Sources : Tom’s Hardware US, Archyde.com, Cnews.ru