Sanctions can at best slow China from taking the global lead in chip manufacturing. At their worst, they will raise the chances of chip wars spilling into a physical or economic sphere
		
	 
	
		
		Faster than a speeding tsessebe, South Africa’s high-speed computer processors are far from a flop.
		
	 
	
		
		After the indignity of seeing its economy overtaken by China’s, Japan has clawed back a little pride by producing the world’s most powerful computer.
		
	 
	
		
			
				
					No image available				
			
			
			 / 29 October 2010
			
		
		Tianhe-1A, named for the Milky Way, is capable of sustained computing of 2,507 petaflops — equivalent to 2 507-trillion calculations — each second.
		
	 
	
		
		Christina Scott reports on how South Africa and
Egypt are using supercomputers to avert disasters
		
	 
	
		
		Roadrunner was always expected to be fast out of the blocks. And after a test run one night in the city of Poughkeepsie, New York, its creators were far from disappointed.