4d ago

Non-American computer hardware

I’m looking to avoid American-made goods and American companies as much as possible and this relatively challenging when it comes to computers.

From my research so far it seems very difficult to find computer hardware that isn’t using American company microprocessors. CPUs available to non-industrial uses tend to be AMD, Intel, or recently some Qualcomm — all US companies. Even Raspberry Pi uses a Broadcom chip, and the other up-and-coming ARM chips I’ve researched seem to be American as well.

I’d appreciate any insights in this area, either companies with existing products or up and coming companies to watch. If I had a blind spot in my research and I’m missing something obvious please tell me.

36 comments

Non-American CPUs are very rare. NXP and Infineon are European chip makers, but the only device with an NXP SoC that I'm aware of right now would be the Purism Librem 5. An almost 7 year old, absolutely overpriced, nearly unusable, insecure Linux phone.
We're a little more lucky when it comes to storage. Goodram is flash memory manufacturer from Poland. Intenso is based in Germany. G.Skill and ADATA are Taiwanese. Toshiba and Kioxia are Japanese, SK Hynix and Samsung are South Korean.
(TrekStor is also German, but I'm not sure if they make the chips themselves)
Most mainboard manufacturers, such as MSI, AsRock, ASUS, Gigabyte and Biostar are Taiwanese.

Then there's also the software to think about. You can certainly use Linux instead of Windows but even then, lots of people will also end up using Google, Steam or Discord.
- I’ve used Linux since 1996, so that doesn’t bother me in the slightest
  I should have mentioned that but I’m a bit self-conscious about being the “I use arch btw” people. Even though I do use Arch, btw.

Is it really American computer hardware if it’s all manufactured outside of the US?
- They control the final product, so the answer is yes
- Yes and no? I would make the distinction its American Designed hardware regardless of where it was manufactured. Manufacturing these days is a cheap commodity no matter what. 100% China would outsource manufacturing to African countries if it made economic sense over domestic production in China. At the end of the day you really got to figure out what your intentions are. Boycotting USA? By stuff designed and sold by companies outside the USA. Buying non exploitative and ethically procured and manufactured electronics? Well let me know if such a thing exists.
- I’m not going to demand that everyone share my preferences, but yes I’m trying to avoid supporting US companies as much as possible.
  Which in the context of my question this means I’m looking for the parts which are often made in the same facilities as US companies but do not send any money to their firms.

Open source Risc-V CPUs are starting to become a thing, but probably a few years before they're widespread.
- This looks very promising thanks for sharing it.
  
  worth mentioning that “promising” is about all it is right now… you absolutely don’t want a RISC-V based machine yet: they’re incredibly slow, and incredibly expensive… they’re development machines; not for end users
  
  You're welcome

Plenty of Taiwanese based companies for PC parts (ASRock, ASUS, BenQ); though I don't know if any of them have CPUs, specifically, and the GPUs are still based on specs from nVidia or AMD so IDK how much better that is. There's also Chinese based parts, though I have to imagine that's not much better than US ones, for the same reasons you want to avoid American parts.

Nvidia/AMD/Intel/Apple/Qualcomm/Broadcom < Matrox/Imagination/SiPearl/Arm/Nordic Semiconductor
- Thank you this has given me some very useful leads.
  
  It's good to check out the options, also consider writing to your representatives to buy non-american hardware brands.

Moore Threads is a domestic Chinese company that seems to be trying to compete with NVIDIA, AMD. Their GPUs look comparable to GTX 10xx series cards. Wish I could get ahold of one to try it out. I hear the drivers are pretty crappy but have been getting better fairly recently. Fortunately, most parts are fundamentally based in Taiwan due to TSMC so you might have to research clients of TSMC to find alternatives. CPUs are a pain point. INTEL or AMD. ARM is cool but until RISC really takes off, your going to be tied to at least one or two american companies.
- ARM isnt very powerful outside Apple stuff, but it's good enough for most users now. RISC-V is the future but its performance is terrible right now and the price is high. If you are planning for like 5 years ferom now, consider RISC-V. Otherwise, it's x86 or ARM for most people.
  The Orion O6 is coming out soon and promises some decent flexibility with ARM. Its not as great as Ampere's offerings but its good enough for now and much cheaper.

Really wish Nortel was still around for networking. No idea for good business grade switches and access points.
- I’ve been an avid Unifi fan for years, but for my “prosumer” uses I’ll probably be moving to TP-Link unless I find a better alternative for network gear.
  I don’t love supporting China for a variety of serious reasons, but for me… not threatening to conquer my country gives them a big step up from America despite those reasons.
  
  You could check out Mikrotik. Latvian company. It takes a bit of work to understand though from my experience. Their routers are very good though.
  
  TP-link was put on a cautionary list in Canada, I think, for instance.
  Please double-check that it's your best option. I just bought a home plug bridge and I'd buy another, but it's not for the tasty part of my home setup so I lie to myself about any risks.

AFAIK MediaTek is from Taiwan, but their CPUs often come pre soldered to a small form factor mainboards, like from Via (also Taiwanese)
- I have been looking into mediatek, and your tip about via was a good one. It seems to be the best answer to my question in terms of what exists now.
  However I’m unable to find anything available for retail consumers, they seem to mainly target industrial markets for embedded applications.
  But it’s very close. Part of me wonders if there is a niche market for this in Canada if one could develop this into a product for sale.
  
  mediatek chips are sometimes used in chromebooks. Look there.
  
  They used to sell to consumers. Long time ago, I bought a Micro- or Nano-ITX board from Via for a home made DVR-Mini-PC. Maybe they got pushed out the market.

rockchip based SBCs are powerful enough for general-purpose use. Some of the companies behind them are american like PINE64 but most arent. There's a promising board called the orion o6 coming out of china but its still really young in its development and support lifecycle and its hard to source.

36 comments