United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office National Security and International Affairs Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-09-16 monographic deposited born digital 52 p. GA 1.13:NSIAD-98-196 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-196 P0b002ee180376833 f:ns98196 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-196 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-196 NSIAD-98-196 Export regulation Foreign trade agreements International relations Foreign governments Technology transfer Computer equipment industry Supercomputers Dual-use technologies Foreign trade policies Nuclear proliferation Japan Germany United Kingdom China Russia France India Letter Report NSIAD Pursuant to a legislative requirement and a congressional request, GAO reviewed concerns that U.S. national security interests may have been compromised by sales of unlicensed high performance computers (HPC) to China and Russia, focusing on: (1) the basis for the executive branch's revision of HPC export controls; (2) changes in licensing activities and the implementation of certain U.S. licensing and export enforcement requirements since the revision; and (3) the current foreign availability of HPCs, particularly for certain countries of national security concern.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) a Stanford University study on foreign availability of HPCs was a key element in the decision to revise HPC export controls; (2) however, GAO's analysis of the study showed that it had 2 significant limitations; (3) first, the study lacked empirical evidence or analysis to support its conclusion that HPCs were uncontrollable based on worldwide availability and insufficient resources to control them; (4) second, the study did not assess the capabilities of countries of concern to use HPCs for military and other national security applications; (5) the study's principal author said that U.S. government data was insufficient to make such an assessment, and the study recommended that better data be gathered so that such an analysis could be done in the future; (6) the executive branch did not undertake a threat analysis of providing HPCs to countries of concern, but raised the computing power thresholds for HPC export controls and established a four-tier control structure; (7) the 1996 revision to HPC export controls had three key consequences; (8) the number of computer export licenses issued declined from 395 in the fiscal year 1995 to 42 in 1997; (9) U.S. HPC exporters were charged with responsibilities previously conducted by the government, including screening and reporting on the end use and end user of HPCs; (10) the regulation required HPC manufacturers to keep records of the end users of all their HPC exports over 2,000 million theoretical operations per second (MTOPS); (11) to date, information on these exports reported to the government has been incomplete; (12) responsibility for postshipment verification (PSV) checks remained with the government; (13) however, because of how PSVs for computers are implemented, their value is reduced because they verify the physical location of a HPC, but not how it is used; (14) subsidiaries of U.S. computer manufacturers dominate the overseas HPC market, and they must comply with U.S. controls; (15) three Japanese companies are global competitors of U.S. manufacturers, two of which told GAO that they had no sales to tier 3 countries such as Russia and China; (16) Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom each have export controls on HPCs similar to those of the United States, according to foreign government officials; (17) Russia, China, and India have developed HPCs, but the capabilities of their computers are believed to be limited; and (18) thus, GAO's analysis suggests that HPCs over 2,000 MTOPS are not readily available to tier 3 countries from foreign sources without restrictions. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-196/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-196.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-196/pdf/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-196.pdf GAO/NSIAD-98-196 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-98-196 Letter Report GAO/NSIAD-98-196; Export Controls: Information on the Decision to Revise High Performance Computer Controls; Export regulation Foreign trade agreements International relations Foreign governments Technology transfer Computer equipment industry Supercomputers Dual-use technologies Foreign trade policies Nuclear proliferation Japan Germany United Kingdom China Russia France India Public Law 105-85