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Discussing RAM Shortages, AI, and the products of 2026 w/ Defense Engineer (Guest Telegrams) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-01-03 02:28:32
Imported:
2026-01
Tags:

Content

The next Broken Silicon will see us be joined by the "Defense Engineer" once again! For those who don't know this person has an ability to talk about basically anything we usually talk about, but then also talk about how our usual subjects relate to geopolitics and the United States Government.

At a minimum we plan to discuss national security concerns resulting from the RAM Shortage Situation, AI, the rise of Linux vs Windows, consumer protections, Intel's Future, and FSR 4 "Redstone" vs DLSS 4 - but feel free to ask whatever you want below!

You have ~36 hours to submit!

Last Time Guest was on: https://youtu.be/fqUn_Jdo1mg

Comments

Timo H

Gotta ask: is defense engineering more boring than 1) NASA 2) IBM. Both of those have plenty of jokes. For NASA it is understandably insane level of quality they need in space. For IBM it is their business strategy to serve big customers needing absurd reliability and long support. (in other words, what kind of mentality fits there compared to these 2 niches)

FloridaMan

I can answer this. It requires a lot of perseverance in discovery and patience to deal with contract decisions

FloridaMan

AI has been shoved into many different areas, has it been introduced in your particular field and/or can you see its utility in your particular field?

FloridaMan

What is your opinion of Intel vs AMD for defense hardware? If you have moved over from one to the other, how difficult has that transition been?

Jen-Hsun Huang, AI is not circular

When the AI (so called) bubble pops, how will the availability of cheap compute companies will need to find a way to make some money on impact how militaries around the world are able to utilize compute?

Loanshark88

Does AMD offer a system for lockstep computing to check if computations have been done correctly by using multiple cores/cpus/computers in lockstep. Are AMD chips used in life critical systems and how is redundancy handled? How does AMD and IBM compete for applications traditionally ran on mainframes?

Cleansweep

Given all the craziness in the hardware market, do you think that the US government might invest in building out the rest of the PC hardware supply chain? It seems like the politicians understood chip fabbing, but not all the other steps required to make computers/processors.

KarbinCry

People often worry about lack of leading edge manufacturing in the US degrading US capability in a major war with a near-peer opponent (wink wink). But what is more important for actual warfighting capacity - leading edge, soft chips, or GloFo's hardened IP and RF fabs, TI's analog and RF, Wolfspeed's SiC power semis and unique, low volume lab style setups like IBM or BAe MEC?

KarbinCry

Ukraine shows the utility of cheap drones. Do these require leading edge semiconductors, or would they be fine with 12nm or even 28nm chips?

KarbinCry

There seems to be some closing of the QoS gap between military and civilian domain, for example in car silicon (ADAS requirements). Does that present an opportunity the military sector recognizes, to leverage those ADAS hardened chips, which often even have AI acceleration built in, instread of more custom, more hardened silicon?

AnotherChris

The defense industry is very slow to upgrade technology in most aspects of their missions. Are there any pushes to make it quicker for more modern tech to get approval to be used in the field?

AnotherChris

Did the lessons from Covid help you prepare for the ram shortages? I would think that you guys now have a more “just in case” culture.

Xavbeat03

How do defense contracting needs differ from business or consumer needs?

RasterBlaster

I'm curious about how much of the US drone ban is really about national security and why? Is it about concerns that secret surveillance hardware will be in the drones? Is it about backdoors that could allow them to be controlled and weaponized? Is it to attempt to ensure that we have the ability to manufacture drones domestically?

HMS

Semi-joking question: how big of an issue are miltech leaks on discord chats about War Thunder and other games? This is a running meme in many communities. Are gamers a national security threat and how aware is USG of this issue?

yoda king

From the defense perspective I recently saw that the USA added silver as a critical mineral. How would the USA government about producing more silver?

AI Generated Fish

In the circles you travel in, what is the sentiment around AI? In my experience it's being applied towards things it doesn't need to be and not used in areas where it would be most useful.

Prior is the theme 999

As a defense engineer, have you seen Ai change your field in any meaningful way? Being a measly peasant consumer nothing has happened besides worse products in my opinion for the most part and horrible product names.

Glass

With the speed of technological improvements, how do you see the Adaptive Acquisition Framework needing to change? It seems as the Major Capable Acquisition will always arrive late and outdated by the time you even hit IOC. Will middle tier of acquisition need to be made primary? Tried to clean up most of the acronyms for the general public readers.

Prior is the theme 999

Does the defense sector also suffer from windows or do you guys have your own OS?

Prior is the theme 999

What's the conversation like when intel is the topic? Are they seen as an important asset that cant be lost for national security reasons or has Uncle Sam gave up on them?

Timo H

Are there rare earth or other minerals that defense engineer needs to worry about.... or do you put Dell or HP to check those details for you?

TheParadoxy

Has Ukraine opened up any new and interesting communication problems? Do you see AI playing a role in things like drone warfare, specifically in situations where hostiles are trying to interrupt communications with drones?

TheParadoxy

Have you used Keysight technologies' EDA tools? Are they implementing machine learning like Cadence and Synopsis are in their EDA tools? What's an improvement you'd like to see in any software you use?

TheParadoxy

What sort of communications issued would you anticipate being relevant to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan?

KarbinCry

I know Europe has a lot of fairly easily accessible rare earths and lithium in old mining waste, and even more hidden in those old, closed mines. Is US also in a position to get their own supply quickly from similar sources?

TechnoLadz

Do you think Trump will use the Venezuela war as a jumping off platform to cause a Cuba Missile Crisis 2? Why is it America is so obsessed with stealing oil and gas?

Thijs Janssen

I would guess RAM is very important for defense. In the infrastructure, cyber security, R&D, vehicles and smart weapons like missile guidance and what not. What ways do countries have to prioritize themselves during shortages, like RAM supply shortages today? Do we expect to see more collateral damage and casualties in wars and other military operations due to the use of less smart weapons during RAM shortages?

Thijs Janssen

Hi Tom and Guest. Gardiner Bryant, aka the linux gamer, had a unique perspective on why Valve would kill the LCD steam deck, that I would like to hear your perspective on. He speculates the cheap LCD steamdeck functions as a pricing anchor, and by cancelling the LCD version, they increase the price of the cheapest Valve SteamOS hardware in preparation of the launch of the Steam Machine and Steam Frame. Compared to the €569 steamdeck the Steam Frame will be considered cheaper than when it would be compared to a €419 gaming device. What do you think? Source: https://gardinerbryant.com/why-valves-retiring-the-steam-deck-lcd/