'Macbook killer' and obsolete electric car: how Russia tries to 'import substitute' Western goods, but fails
Under the sanctions, Russia lost not only Apple stores and access to streaming services, but also the Taiwanese chips that it passed off as its own. Russian “import-substituting” technologies usually raise many questions, reports Liga.Tech.
Photo: IStock
Since 2014, the term “import substitution” has been popular in Russia, meaning the production of goods whose import has become impossible due to sanctions - Western or Russian. The term immediately acquired a comical meaning - like, for example, Belarusian shrimp, which began to be sold in the Russian Federation after 2014.
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Russian industry is not capable of creating a worthy product without any component of non-Russian production. This is also confirmed by statements that Russian weapons use chips from household appliances.
Numerous technology companies have left the Russian market - Spotify, IMAX, Whirlpool, IBM, Michelin and Kone, service of Apple and Samsung equipment is limited. While Ukrainians are gaining access to world services, agreeing to build a Bayraktar plant in Ukraine and creating drones and anti-drone guns, companies from the Russian Federation are developing equipment with outdated components at an inflated price.
"MacBook Killer" on the Baikal processor
The Russian company Promobit promises to begin production of the Bitblaze Titan laptop at the end of 2022, which the local publication Cnews calls the “MacBook killer”, since the Russian product is also made of aluminum. But that’s where the commonality ends – the Bitblaze Titan’s battery life is only five hours versus 18 in the MacBook Air 2020.
The import-substituting laptop runs on the Baikal processor. This is a development of the Russian company Baikal Electronics, but such processors are produced by the Taiwanese company TSMC.
The exterior is made of aluminum and allows for customization, such as choosing the color of the touchpad.
To Western experts, the laptop looks like an Apple MacBook Pro. Bitblaze Titan will begin production in late 2022.
According to Promobit commercial director Yana Barysh, who published her own photo with the new product on the VK social network, the laptop is equipped with “software for viewing YouTube.” The basic version will cost $1670, the version with a titanium case will cost almost twice as much.
Yana Brysh did not specify whether the updated version of Bitblaze Titan differs from the previous modification in terms of technical characteristics. Previously, the laptop was offered with a 15,6-inch IPS screen with Full HD resolution, a full-size keyboard with NumPad and a 250 or 512 GB solid-state drive in the M.2 form factor. The amount of RAM is a minimum of 16 GB and a maximum of 128 GB, DDR4 strips are used. As representatives of Promobit told CNews, the laptop is fully compatible with the Russian operating systems Viola and Astra Linux.
A 5 mAh battery provides a 6000-hour battery life for the laptop. Peripherals can be connected via four USB-A 3.0, one USB-C, HDMI and a 3,5 mm mini-jack. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Ethernet are also available.
As for Baikal-M, it is a 28-nanometer ARM chip with a frequency of up to 1,5 GHz. Inside it are eight Cortex A57 cores and an integrated Mali-T628 module with a frequency of up to 700 MHz for graphics processing. There will be no discrete video card in the laptop.
Previously, representatives of Promobit said that the size of the first batch will be 1000 copies. According to them, this limit “is determined by two factors - the number of processors reserved for the company for this year and demand testing.”
Due to the war unleashed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, Taiwan has already stopped the production of chips for the Russian market.
Russian processors from a Korean company
The UK imposed sanctions against Russian processor manufacturers at the beginning of May 2022. These are JSC MCST, which produces Elbrus processors, and JSC Baikal Electronics, a manufacturer of Baikal processors.
Baikal uses a license for the processor architecture of the British company ARM, which also powers developments from Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung and other manufacturers.
The sanctions not only freeze the company's assets in the country, but also make it impossible for a direct manufacturer to work with the company. And this is not a production somewhere on Baikal, but the Taiwanese company TSMC, the largest chip manufacturer in the world. As well as other major semiconductor companies - UMC (Taiwan) and Global Foundries (USA).
AYYA smartphone with “unique button” and outdated camera
In March 2022, Russian State Duma deputy Maria Butina presented the development of the Rostec state corporation - the AYYA smartphone with a “unique function of turning off the microphone and camera with one button.” It is implemented on the side of the smartphone.
And in this case, Russians cannot resist comparisons with Apple. Unpacking the product, Butina emphasized that the smartphone runs “not some Google or Apple,” but the Russian Aurora operating system.
The AYYA T1 has a 13-megapixel camera, which is very small for 2022, has 4 GB of RAM and a 70 MediaTek Helio P2018 processor.
In Russia, this smartphone is sold for $300, which is too expensive to develop on an OS for which there are no adapted applications and with outdated components.
Ladas without airbags
In May, the Russian government approved a decree allowing cars to be produced without airbags, anti-lock brakes (ABS) and an emergency call device. The purpose of this decree is to start the work of automakers in the face of sanctions for the unleashed war.
Russian AvtoVAZ has already started producing Lada Granta cars without ABS and airbags. As Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov explained, passengers will be able to “ride for a while without airbags, and then they will be installed.” The official compared the car plant to a blast furnace, which supposedly cannot be started after work stops.
Russian media have already reported that “simplified” cars are used by Yandex Taxi, but the service later denied this.
Russian electric car Evolute based on Chinese
At the end of August, self-produced electric cars Evolute should be presented in the Russian Federation. They will be built at the Motorinvest plant in Lipetsk.
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As noted by iXBT, the first model to be released will be i-PRO. This is a “clone” of the Chinese Dongfeng Aeolus E70, the difference between electric cars is only in the logos. That is, in Russia they will assemble a Chinese electric car under its own brand.
The maximum speed of the Evolute i-PRO, like that of the Dongfeng Aeolus E70, is 150 km / h, acceleration from 0 to 100 km / h will take about 10 seconds, and the range will be 420 km.
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