I don't know for certain, but having dealt with Dell before (as an institutional customer), I know the government buys off-the-shelf Dells. Now, maybe the intelligence agencies have special arrangements, I don't know, but it seems unlikely to me. I'm sure they do more than just unpack the box and plop it onto the desk, but I doubt Dell or HP have special manufacturing facilities for intelligence agency machines.
Comments
What makes you think they buy off-the-shelf Chinese-assembled Dells and HPs?
If they weren't buying off the shelf computers to begin with this announcement wouldn't have been required.
I don't know for certain, but having dealt with Dell before (as an institutional customer), I know the government buys off-the-shelf Dells. Now, maybe the intelligence agencies have special arrangements, I don't know, but it seems unlikely to me. I'm sure they do more than just unpack the box and plop it onto the desk, but I doubt Dell or HP have special manufacturing facilities for intelligence agency machines.
Most of the computers in a defence facility are unclassified or restricted. The rules are different for secret/top secret.