Asia In Transient Chinese language chip designer Loongson final Friday introduced its processors are powering a cloud computing platform that has been launched into area.
The silicon slinger introduced that its tech was constructed right into a payload known as Star Eye that launched on November 15 aboard the Tianzhou-8 cargo mission to the Tiangong House Station..
Star Eye observes sources of radiation on Earth, captures photographs for distant sensing missions, and contains what Loongson described (through machine translation) as “storage, computing, and transmission features” plus “on-orbit knowledge processing, storage, forwarding, energy conversion and management, activity administration, and thermal administration.”
Loongson did not reveal which of its processors made it into area. It makes use of a proprietary instruction set structure that’s appropriate with MIPS however contains parts of RISC-V, and gives merchandise designed to be used on the desktop, in servers and in industrial equipment.
The Chinese language chippie’s wares are modest and are a couple of years behind rivals like AMD and Intel, however this announcement nonetheless suggests Loongson silicon is prepared for use as a space-based cloud platform.
A day after asserting the launch, it printed a press release by which it hosed down rumors it has sought new sources of personal funding.
– Simon Sharwood
India’s {hardware} license requirement prolonged one other yr
India’s authorities has reportedy determined to increase its IT {hardware} import authorization regime till the top of 2025.
The scheme – launched immediately and seemingly with out session in late 2023 – meant electronics producers wanted approval to ship sure merchandise to India. The regulation was opposed by massive producers, main India to excise desktop PCs from the scheme and shortly signal on off on many approvals.
The scheme was initially set to run out in September of this yr, however was prolonged till the top of 2024.
“The current scheme has been prolonged until December 2024. Past December additionally, it’s to additionally proceed for yet another yr in the meanwhile. We are going to evaluation on the finish of that interval and someplace by the calendar yr 2025 and determine what’s to be achieved with the scheme subsequent,” Ministry of Electronics and Data Know-how (MeitY) secretary S Krishnan advised NDTV Revenue.
Korea cracks down on Chinese language e-commerce
South Korea’s Honest Commerce Fee (FTC) final week issued corrective orders to Chinese language e-commerce platforms AliExpress and Temu, alleging that the 2 use 47 unfair phrases and circumstances in agreements supplied to native buyers.
The FTC discovered 13 clauses that restricted client rights, excluded the platforms from legal responsibility, and violated native e-commerce legal guidelines. It additionally was sad with intensive private knowledge assortment with out clear consent or utilization length, and required the platforms to adjust to Korea’s Private Data Safety Act.
In different Chinese language e-commerce information, on Thursday Alibaba Group introduced the merger of its home and worldwide enterprise right into a single unit.
“The e-commerce trade in China and all over the world is getting into a brand new period, and the worldwide provide chain capabilities, success capabilities and client service capabilities will decide the longer term aggressive panorama,” reportedly commented chief govt Eddie Wu in a publish on Alibaba’s intranet.
JAXA, ESA comply with area exploration partnership
The European House Company (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA) signed an settlement to deepen their partnership on area exploration.
The 2 companies already collaborate on missions – like BepiColombo to journey to Mercury, and EarthCARE to review local weather right here at house.
The brand new settlement focuses on a number of area initiatives, together with ESA’s Ramses mission to the asteroid Apophis. The companies may also collaborate on the Gateway program to create a crewed station in lunar orbit, with contributions from each ESA and JAXA to NASA’s Artemis program.
ESA and JAXA additionally outlined joint lunar exploration efforts, corresponding to lunar landers and rovers, and plans for lunar communications by ESA’s Moonlight program. Mars exploration can be on the agenda.
The partnership extends to area science, together with ESA’s New Athena X-ray telescope and potential future initiatives like M-Matisse to review Mars’s habitability.
OpenAI sued in India
Indian information outfit ANI sued OpenAI in a New Delhi courtroom for scraping its content material to coach ChatGPT with out permission.
Different organizations which have sued OpenAI embrace the New York Instances and the Chicago Tribune.
“We construct our AI fashions utilizing publicly obtainable knowledge, in a fashion protected by truthful use and associated ideas, and supported by long-standing and extensively accepted authorized precedents,” the chatbot maker has reportedly argued.
APAC Dealbook
Alliances and offers noticed by The Register throughout the area final week embrace:
- SoftBank’s international enterprise capital fund Vison Fund 2 introduced it is investing in cloud safety firm Wiz to assist its growth into the Asia-Pacific area. The precise quantity was not publicly uncovered.
- Vietnam signed an MOU with the US to associate on cyber safety. Tran Quang Hung, performing director common of Vietnam’s Authority of Data Safety, mentioned the alliance goals to guard crucial digital infrastructure and guarantee a safe our on-line world.
- Equinix introduced a $260 million funding to construct a sixth datacenter in Singapore, anticipated to open in Q1 2027.
- Singaporean funding agency 65 Fairness Companions bought 13 p.c of Chinese language cloud platform Tuya.
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