Intel Gets the Lead Out
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 05.23.07
Intel Corp. has taken another step toward being greener by announcing that they will stop using lead in its new microprocessors. The company, featured on TreeHugger before for their green building initiatives, new, smaller chip and computer-imbedded surfboard (?!?), will start the lead-free process with the Penryn line of processors made using a 45-nanometer process. Intel has been working to eliminate lead from its chips for several years -- in 2002, when it started shipping flash memory that used lead-free solder made from tin, silver and copper. By 2004, the company managed to replace most of the lead solder (about 95%) used in its chip sets and processors with their new tin-silver-copper solder -- and development efforts have been costly. In 2005, an Intel executive revealed the company had spent $100 million to develop the alternative material to replace lead in solder used to package chips; the result was a "secret sauce"-type solder cocktail that uses a tin-silver-copper alloy. The shift in solder materials will not affect the performance of the chips, according to the company. While this particular announcement does nothing to further the fight against the e-waste explosion (which may be the larger problem with electronics), less toxins in electronics (and e-waste, if not properly disposed of) is certainly a good thing. Read more at ::Computer World, ::Ars Technica and ::PC World
Thing do happen in weird ways... Tree huggers wow really My 4 year old grand Daughter caught me off guard... Out side we were wondering around the yard..and out of the mouths of babes..
these are the words she conveyed to me...I am one on the road to discovery!!! Gammy if you ever get lost just hug a tree... that blew me away to say the least then she said I will go this way you go there and waite I weighted but then she took so long I got worried and went to look I called her and then she came running I asked her where she was and
with a BIG smile on her face she said.. I had to hug
a tree!!! go figure??? That's my Kallie four YAH.
Truly a natural peice of Natural Beauty.. a real bumb on the head now 2 log. get it. over n out
Don't pat Intel too hard on the back for this action seeing how they are doing it in large part due to ever more stringent electronic environmental regulations coming out of Europe and Japan.
The above comment is correct, Intel MUST eliminate all lead from its products, including solder as a part of RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) that is the law in the EU.
Ya, to me, INTEL has been one of the worst offender for so long. Actually, he still market some of the most "Inefficients computers" ever build: Low performance + High Electric demand. Anything with "PENTIUM" in it name shall be in the list of Hazardous Waste strait from the Store. Some are still on the shelf at this very moment. PENTIUM 820D for example.
My reaction: INTEL is starting to listen to a few BIG customers and is trying to fulfill some of the government mandated regulation such as RoHS. No big deal, just try to keep it bottom line healthy.
Regarding the electric consumption, INTEL is currently in reaction mode following it huge market share lost to AMD Opteron. This is the only reason the "Electric Consumption" was put on the Agenda. For sure, when huge customer indicates that the electricity needed to operate there computer center was limited to a mere 100 MWe or 200 MWe and that, with that tiny electric budget, they can serve twice as many customers with an AMD Processors on board, INTEL understand that it was loosing sales by the truck load.
So, INTEL match or surpassed AMD in that area. However, the so call "HE (High Efficiency)" parts are difficult to get. INTEL reserve them to there best customers I was told.
So, thanks to the governement and thanks to some big customers such as Google. The INTEL company finally start to move in the right direction. May be, one day, they will be the leader in this area... Only time will tell.
Its all well and good to reduce toxic material usage such as lead, but be prepared for more Intel chips failing due to the lack of lead which retards metal crystal formations which causes circuits to short and fail.
A larger failure rate would be adding to teh disposable nature of computers and other electronics, and thereby adding to the nonbiodegradeable trash
A failed chip also adds more energy waste in replacing whatever item it supported. So removing lead is teh wrong answer to that problem.
This is specially wrong in chips that belong to things that should last a long time.