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The Costs of Making a DRAM Chip

Posted by michael on from the paying-the-price dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Researchers at the United Nations University in Tokyo studied the physical and environmental costs to produce one 32-megabyte DRAM chip. Their conclusion? The UNU team found that to make every one of the millions manufactured each year requires 32 kg of water, 1.6 kg of fossil fuels, 700 grams of elemental gases (mainly nitrogen), and 72 grams of chemicals (hundreds are used, including lethal arsine gas and corrosive hydrogen fluoride)."

11 of 473 comments (clear)

  1. Re:FP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    hehe, you were pretty close :)

  2. This is typical by Jack+Wagner · · Score: -1, Troll
    I actually was spearheading a project back before the dot com bubble burst to start building environmentally friendly chips out of a HeGi/plastic hybrid. We were attempting to get government funding for the project as we had proven that we could basically save the country billions of dollars over time by eliminating the costly need to dispose of these old silicon based chips once they outgrow their usefulness.

    The process was very time consuming however we were running a FreeBSD optimized server farm with these chips when our funding ran out. You had to make some changes to the Level II bus speeds as you get a little more latency when using HiGe but one of the benefits of using FreeBSD is that we could tweak the code all we wanted.


    Warmest regards,
    --Jack

    --


    Wagner LLC Consulting Co. - Getting it right the first time
    1. Re:This is typical by Enry · · Score: -1, Troll

      Hrmph. The latin (original) version of "The Mythical Man Month" covered the use of HeGi/plastic for memory. You could have saved yourself a lot of time and money.

  3. What this means by MImeKillEr · · Score: 0, Troll

    is bascially "don't chew on that DRAM module".

    This PSA brought to you by MImeKillEr.

    We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming....

    --
    Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
  4. IN SOVIET FINLAND by IN+SOVIET+FINLAND · · Score: -1, Troll

    We use DRAM chips to make IN SOVIET RUSSIA jokes!

  5. Well, the United Nations is a suspect agency by Adam+Rightmann · · Score: -1, Troll
    electing noted terrorist and torturer Moamar Qaddafi to the UN Human Rights Committee is just more proof of the anti Democratic, anti technology, anti Christian and anti American bias in that agency.

    So, when some UN sponsored agency says chip manufacturing uses all these resources and makes all this pollution, I take those figure with a grain of salt, and look for the political movement behind them. I suspect the next report will condemn America and other western nations for their reliance on energy wasting high tech, and suggest we go back to living in drafty huts heated with animal dung (hello tubercolisos and lung disease) common in more PC third world countries like India, Sudan and France, while applauding the slave and child labor and environmental destruction used in the latest fabs in China.

    I just ask you to compare the amounts of fossil fuel used to make this Pentium I'm using with the amounts I would need to go to each and every one of you and try to bring you back to the True Church, and ask you what is the better bargain for the world our Creator Above gave us.

    --
    A. Rightmann
  6. Re:All those fossil fuels! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    What a pathetic troll you are.

  7. Put another way, it requires......... by Ride-My-Rocket · · Score: 0, Troll

    700 grams of gases, 72 grams of chemical, 32kg of water, 1.6kg of fossil fuels...... and a par-tridge in a pear treeeee!

  8. Re:Environmentally Abusive? by zulux · · Score: 0, Troll

    Hey, Mr. Cheney! I didn't know you had a Slashdot account!

    The best thing about being Mr. Cheney, is that after CmdrTaco bitch-slaped my account for my popular "Yes! War for Oil!" post, I had the Secret Service go over and leave their "Secret Sauce" in his anus. The hard way.

    --

    Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  9. Take chemistry much? by PhysicsGenius · · Score: -1, Troll
    First, none of the many helium-containing compounds are lighter than air. Helium doesn't cancel gravity, it just happens to have a low density. When you combine it with other elements, obviously it's going to weight more. Second, I would assume the "Gi" was a typo. He clearly meant "HeGI", which is Helium Gallium Iridide and is widely used in chip manufacture.

    Not that it matters, you are a known trollbuster and should be modded down.

  10. Re:eep.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Is anyone interested in tasting my genitalia? It resembles a purple frog that's been slammed in a desk drawer. Quite beautiful really.