Re: Odd - China Building "Space Supercomputer"

On 04/06/2025 09:15, c186282 wrote:

On 6/4/25 3:56 AM, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

[ snip alt. groups that the news server I use doesn't know about ]
>
In comp.os.linux.misc c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:

https://greekreporter.com/2025/06/03/china-world-first-supercomputer-space/
>
China has begun building what could become the world's
first supercomputer in space. On May 14, a Long March 2D
rocket launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center,
carrying 12 advanced satellites into orbit.
. . .
>
   This is kind of strange ...
>
   Not entirely sure of the POINT in building anything
   quite like this in orbit.
>
   SOUNDS like they're implementing a distributed computing
   setup, with each sat as a 'motherbox' of a sort ... and
   the overall OS will be able to use on or many to do a
   given task. This kind of cluster computing is perfectly
   common on the ground (think Google runs on ONE box ?)
   but in SPACE, with the inherent delays between the
   nodes, VERY weird.

>
Optical communication works in space without fibre-optics so I'm
not sure why inter-satellite communication delays would be an
issue.
>
See this article:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3990472/china-takes-edge-computing-to-orbit-with-first-space-based-processing-network.html
>
They expect link speeds to match fibre-optics, and avoid the round
trip of Earth -> space -> Earth -> Space -> Earth which satellite
internet networks currently encounter. I was already wondering if
something like this would happen - something like Starlink offering
on-satellite VPSs, but of course everything's AI-focused now while
that hype train is still rolling.
>
The other thing I was wondering, which the that article also touches
on, is the legal aspect. Already satellite internet allows people to
circumvent content restrictions imposed on terrestrial ISPs in their
country to browse foreign websites. If illegal content like pirated
videos is hosted in space, can anyone force it to be taken down?
Could we get a contellation of pirate and porn satellites that
operate outside the law (assuming the law can be tricked into
letting them get launched)? What if a satellite-server gets hacked?
There's nobody up there to pull the plug, access to it could be
traded illegally for the rest of its lifetime. If a whole
constellation got hacked that could really ammount to something.
>
Or is this finally a commercial use for space stations - somewhere
that the orbiting internet can be fixed from?

     My concern is not with the underlying TECH- but
   the underlying INTENT.
    You don't invest THIS much without INTENT.

As with Russia, don't overestimate Chinas competence.
There are credible analyses suggesting they  lost *half* their population fromn Covid and it wasn't what they claimed in the first place, and that their economy is in freefall and Xi Ping is being 'replaced'/
How true any of this is, we wont know. The CCP keeps its problems well hidden, but the prices some stuff is being flogged off at on e.g. Ali Express suggests they have huge product surpluses and no local buyers.
--
"First, find out who are the people you can not criticise. They are your oppressors."
      - George Orwell