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VIA Announces Lead-Free Motherboard
linuxprox writes "VIA announced today that their AS-1210 motherboard will be the world's first lead-free motherboard. 'The transition to 'green' manufacturing for VIA has been very smooth and we have been able to ship lead-free processors and chipsets since the end of last year,' said Richard Brown, Vice President of Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. 'The AS-1210 clearly demonstrates the technology leadership of VIA and Yamashita in being the first to market with a lead-free motherboard that meets the requirements of the international market.'"
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2
And more from Intel:m
http://www.intel.com/research/silicon/leadfree.ht
And more information from AMD:u rces/0,,30_182_4040,00.html
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalReso
Disclosure: I don't work for, or own stock in AMD or Intel. I haven't purchased an Intel chip since the Pentium came out.
-ted
All my plans of turning worthless motherboards into precious pencils has failed!!
--- We need more Ron Paul!
VIA Green Computing page
It's too bad they don't do monitors. Those CRTs are the biggest source of lead in computers. Of course, I don't like electrons being shot at my face, so it's not all bad, but still. They are a pain to dispose of.
Cross your fingers for affordable OLEDs. (fp?)
Aren't most Printed Circuit Boards already green?
Ah, nevermind...
I've had a VIA board on an old i386 and it's never given me problems. Because of this I've bought nothing but VIA boards sine about 1996. I'm sure this board will live up to the VIA reputation.
Ok, I know, it's not punny. Sorry.
New lead free motherboard*
*Supply your own solder.
So I shouldn't have been eating my old motherboards all these years?
Please confirm my Slashdot friends! Woe is me...
Your hybrid is not saving the environment. Its purpose is to make you feel good about buying something.
Now I can let my toddler chew on motherboards without worrying about that pesky lead!
Thanks VIA!
This doesn't do a thing about the lethal levels of sheel negceba that go through most boards, not to mention the chemicals used in most non-paper capacitors, which are not only lethal poisons, but as tasty as anti-freeze to most animals.
Add to this the PCBs in the transformer that go with their power supply, and you've pretty much only addressed the fourth worst problem. The real problems have several orders of magnitude more impact on the environtment and worse -- solutions already exist to solve all three for prices only 5-10% higher than what they pay for existing chemicals!
For some reason I thought that all of the discrete components were going to be surface mount instead of through the board when I read that the board was "Lead free"...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
...is in pencils--a form of carbon. Won't get that past here.
-I am an elective eunuch.
...something good come out of a VIA motherboard. the lead even though VIA sucks this is still a step in the right direction.
Of course i didn't RTFA but .. are they too expensive?
I fail to see the consumer advantage on this kind of thing.. maybe they'll do some kind of special ad campaign..
Marketing guys just love to be able to say thing like "We're environment friendly" :-)
The Nec PowerMate eco computer, released in 2002 supposedly has lead free solder on the motherboard. To quote a press release, "The unit also contains a motherboard made with lead-free solder, which protects both the individuals involved in reclamation, and the ground water in case of disposal". I assume this means that there is no lead in the motherboard? Unless capacitors or other parts have lead?
50% more mercury...
:)
It's a joke people...
...living in a thatched hut eating berries and grass. God forbid that you actually take part in synthetic meterials not of nature *gasp*
Death to Humans!! We are but a plague to mother earth!
Yes folks, this is the most extreme wacko impersonation of the green-peace movement I can come up with. But the sad thing about it, is these wackos exist in real life. Shocking...I know.
Life is not for the lazy.
Read all about the way that Monsanto decimated an entire area with PCBs, maiming entire generations of people. Some quite horrifically. Get your water tested for lead levels. It makes the Erin Brockovich story look like a day at the carnival.
Help out, be green. Pay a few extra bucks for a green mobo. Pay 25% more. Lead products in landfills do amazingly nasty things to water supplies.
my pre-1963 computer only takes leaded!
Is their replacement for lead is made from baby seal spinal cords.
Just like how coal plants release more radition and heavy metals into the environment that nuclear plants. But which ones to the 'enviros' target the most, the nuke plants because it gets them more press.
Compared with negatives like chopping down rainforests, and people driving 4l SUVs to go and pick up the shopping, how much of a + is this?
How do you connect peripherals? Oh wait...
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
Mobos don't just suddenly dematerialise when you're through with them. Instead they sit in land fills and get rained on and leech lead into the groundwater.
Get the lead out! Bad joke, i know :)
It shows that VIA care's about the Earth.. (and conviently released this info on Earth Day).. What other companies are working toward's being 'green' so I know what to buy in the future?
Just when you make it idiotproof, some idiot builds a better idiot.
They don't do this out of altruism, they have to if they want to sell their products on the EU market, since from 2006, all electronic products will have to be lead free.
You know you can't just make up words, right?
Stupid, yes. But how exactly is that a troll?
Your hybrid is not saving the environment. Its purpose is to make you feel good about buying something.
"[T]he campaign of fear now being waged against genetic modification is based largely on fantasy
... Greenpeace has harmed the environmental case."
and a complete lack of respect for science and logic."
Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore.
"Solar power and windmills are not a realistic way out. Nuclear energy is the only real and practical solution, but there has been such a hysterical reaction to it."
James Lovelock, developer of the Gaia Hypothesis.
"Extreme weather events are definitely on the decline over the last 40 years."
Dr. Madhav Khandekar, a meteorologist with 25 years experience at Environment Canada.
"They have cheated the case and I am angry about that, because that will come to our account. They use bad data, as well as for the Brent Spar as for the French nuclear tests. I am against nuclear tests, but one should use scientific, sound arguments
Paul Crutzen, Nobel Prize winner for his work on the ozone layer, who cancelled his Greenpeace membership.
"In truth, what the environmental community has become is a money machine"
Alfred Runte, environmental historian, board member of the National Parks Conservation Association from 1993 to 1997 and author of Yosemite, The Embattled Wilderness.
"In 2000, say World Health Organization and other studies, malaria infected over 300 million people. It killed nearly 2,000,000 - most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
[...]
"[these deaths] are due in large part to near-global restrictions on the production, export and use of DDT.
[...]
"Where DDT is used, malaria deaths plummet. "
Paul Driessen, author of Eco-Imperialism - Green Power. Black Death. - "A former member of the Sierra Club and Zero Population Growth, he abandoned their cause when he recognized that the environmental movement had become intolerant in its views, inflexible in its demands, unwilling to recognize our tremendous strides in protecting the environment, and insensitive to the needs of billions of people who lack the food, electricity, safe water, healthcare and other basic necessities that we take for granted."
"Greenpeace is lobbying against industry plans to exclude products such as DDT from a POPs [persistent organic pollutants] phase-out."
Greenpeace annual report, 1999)
Should be: VIA Announces LED-Free Motherboard
They just dropped the blinking POST diags to save a few pennies.
Hmmm... they don't say much about what is in it as a replacement. Can someone explain? I presume it is a change in the composition of the solder, but what are they using in place of the lead? More tin?
I really do wonder if they have got all the kinks worked out. You never know when some odd interaction of materials, manufacturing processes, and customer environments won't create reliability problems.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Interesting to see a company that is succeeding with lead-free... They are requiring the phase-out of lead-free components by 2006, and now a lot of companies are scrambling to change their product designs and processes to make this possible. I haven't heard of much success in this area.
I think electronic components have a blanket exemption for now, but this exemption is coming up for review soon. Just to be safe, most companies (including mine, which is part of an exempted industry) are trying to come up with lead-free products.
Not sure how much of an effect this will have... I remember reading that on average, electric components are less than 1% lead. In addition, the substitutes being explored to replace lead solder (silver and antimony) may actually cause more groundwater pollution, because they are more soluble. Doesn't seem like it's much more than a feel-good measure.
The House Small Business Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform and Oversight held a hearing today on "Green Gazelles." The term is used to describe a fast growing business that utilizes environmentally friendly processes in its operations. Look for this trend to contine as a niche market for consumers who are willing to pay more for "green" products. Of course, there is no official certification to determine whether your business is "green" or not so feel free to turn off some lights in your store and advertise away!
Actually, the earliest pencils WERE made from lead, until graphite was found to be a much better substititute. I wouldn't nitpick, but I think the above nitpicking gives me more than ample justification =). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead
political correctness has met the IT sector once again. For gosh sakes, what's the problem? I don't plan to eat my motherboard - you might argue "it's thrown away one day", but some miniscule trace of lead found in the solder isn't going to hurt anything - more goes into the environment when i lose a sinker fishing than when I throw away a dozen motherboards.
No water needed for making? What was it? 150 gallons of water just to make memory sticks?
I plan on using it forever!!! No dumpster for me!
> Mobos don't just suddenly dematerialise when you're through with them.
... dare I mention it on slashdot... Beowulf cluster nodes.
No, they evolve into Linux Routers and
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
there are more important issues regarding PCs and the evironment. Why don't PC manufacturers make computers that use less power? Nvidia's new graphic card needs a 450 watt power supply - so what if the mobo is lead free? The thing still draws enough power to burn twice as much oil as needed.
It's cool that they're getting into the push for lead-free electronics. It's certainly not easy or cheap to validate lead-free components. I work in acoustic micro imaging, so I look at the insides of ICs, MEMS, and other electronics all day. we get a lot of work from companies doing moisture sensitivity level testing for lead vs. lead free parts. The lead free parts have to go through a hotter solder reflow profile, so any moisture will cause even more damage. The insides of most of the parts look like someone set a bomb off. it takes them a long while and many iterations before they can pull it off right.
:P.
So, props to them for getting with it.
disclaimer - I don't work for these guys, nor do I buy their products. I'm just a concerned scientist
But, in many ways, there are more serious problems to worry about. The fabrication of just ONE computer uses tons of dihydrogen monoxide -- a substance used in nuclear plants and in the production of styrofoam! It has even begun seeping into our rivers and streams!
:p
Please, if you care about the enviroment, write AMD and Intel and VIA and ask them to stop their wanton use of dihydrogen monoxide.
Come to think of it, if you actually do write them, it might be equally beneficial to society to ensure that you, yourself, cease and decist from consuming this nasty, nasty compound!
However, it's too bad reasonable voices like these are being ignored. And organizations like Greenpeace, PETA, the Sierra Club are being taken over by crazies. The Sierra Club in particular used to be a club for hunters and outdoorsmen, but has turned into an eco-nazi propaganda organization.
I agree that DDT and nuclear power would do quite a lot of good for the world, by the way.
My other first post is car post.
A lead-free motherboard? No leads? How am I going to plug anything into it?
Or do they mean no lead-time...? it gets delivered as soon as you order it. Now that would be nice.
(Spudley Strikes Again!)
How is lead bad for the environment? I know its bad for us, and IIRC ducks, but how does it harm the environment? All the plants i buy for my fishtank come with lead clips around them, the guy at the fish store said lead is one of the few metals you can use in a fishtank. How could lead use in mobos(i assume the solder, so they're using straight tin or what?) be bad for the environment. Or is this just something from marketing, since people see stuff on the news about kids getting retarted from eating lead paint chips and think lead == bad.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Well.. I guess you can always incinerate them... or better yet.. shove them up Darl's ass.
Without lead, am I going to be able to desolder the exploding tawain capacitors in order to replace them with good ones, or do I just have to buy a new computer every 6 months now?
(note to mods: if you still havn't heard of the capacitor problem, go google about it before modding)
Morphing Software
http://computerfan.de/fun/HP_Gabon.jpg
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
I will feel soooo much better when my son pulls chips off his motherboards and sticks them in his mouth! Thanks VIA!!!!
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
The article has a site load meter... and it's not entirely red yet... what's the matter with us fellow /.ers? Have we become weakened?
Learn something new.
---------
Mobile porn
If you view environmental concerns as a luxury good, it makes sense that people only addressed such issues after the average person in society accumulated a fair ammount of wealth.
to quote the Cato Institute here:
And to say that without capitalism there wouldn't be polution to begin with, is to say that it is bad that technology that allows humans to look beyond the brutish nature of the world.
Happy Industrial Revolution Day!
http://while-true.blogspot.com/
Robo-Blogs of the world: UNITE!
it is a wonderfully progressive step forward - chips with no lead. however, lead in processors accounts for a small fraction of lead used each year. as with so many other environmental problems, the main polluter is the automobile industry. during its lifetime, each car uses about as much lead as would be required to paint a house with lead-containing paint. most of the lead in cars is used in lead-acid batteries. perhaps our environmental r+d dollars could be better spent...
~smell my mule~Part A is on a per-plant basis. I wouldn't be surprised if the total effect on greenhouse gases is less for all nuke plants combined than for a single or a few coal-burners, but not knowing how much(if any) steam gets vented, I can't make that declaration.
And I do know that nuclear plants do contribute to algal blooms due to warm water being put back into the waterways. Nuclear plants aren't perfect, and they leave a long-term problem, but they don't toss junk into the upper atmosphere for the whole world to share.
NB: YMMV. IANAL. Take the above with a grain of salt.
I can't understand how the parent can be modded +5 insightful...
:).
First he makes an odd reference to sheel negceba..."furry artpron", apparently.
Then, he claims that there are "lethal poisons" in capacitors. In fact, according to the wikipedia, capacitors generally contain fairly harmless boric acid or sulfuric acid at worst. Not to mention, I find it hard to believe that there are animals digging through dumps and eating electrolyic capacitors.
Finally, PCB electric transformers have been banned since 1977. I think that we can assume that most power supplies in personal computers were manufactured after 1977
Conclusion: parent is full of it, mod down and ignore.
god do people not read anything before replying.
nice effort but in the end I don't think eliminating lead from motherboards will make a significant difference except perhaps in cost.
I understand the prices of tin and silver have been climbing though - with lead free solder now being used in plumbing and now on motherboards...
but frankly a "lead free", CFC-free, so-called "green" motherboard or computer won't be the deciding factor over what I buy next. It's all about the performance and reliability baby.
I, for one, welcome our new Green overlords!
--
That green stuff is solder mask, and actually it comes in many colors. It is used to mask off the outer layer conductors in areas that do not need to be soldered to.
So, what does this mean in terms of shielding from solar radiation? Word is that currently non-ECC RAM can have an occasional bit flipped about once a month or so at sealevel. As technology gets smaller, especially CPUs, will there be new shielding technology developed? Surely there must be something better than lead..
Take your commie trash back to Moscow, Mr. Lenin.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
I fail to see the consumer advantage on this kind of thing
http://www.yesmagazine.org/29globalhope/grossman.h tm
They have to.
And it's a good thing.
The trouble with lead free solders is that they all have considerably higher melting points than lead-based solders. The "standard" lead-based solder has a melting point of 183C. The best available lead-free solders have melting points in the 220C range. That's a big jump. All the manufacturing processes have to be reworked. Some components need to be redesigned for higher soldering temperature tolerance. Some components must be repackaged in different plastics. It's not trivial.
Here's a good summary of the issues.
The sweetest of the transition metals.
Looks like all my letters to VIA saying "Think of the children!" paid off.
...they should go all the way and make computers out of coconuts and palm fronds like Gilligan and the Professor. Now that would be green.
If it happens, I will make sure NOT to melt down any Via motherboards to cast lead bullets for our muskets.
God- didn't these guys realize "get the lead out" was just an expression. They didn't get the memo?
http://dailyablution.blogs.com/the_daily_ablution/ 2003/12/eminent_environ.html
F -8&q=extreme+quotes+environmentalists&spel l=1
Here is the source of what I posted with supporting links. I have researched quotes like these before, but is is the THIRD response http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UT
Now fucking appoligize.
You'll find their psychotic manifesto at http://www.roadkillbill.com
I geuss opinions aren't welcome outside of articles here on /.
Seriously, via needs to stop worrying about the content of lead, and start worrying about why their chipsets suck so much.
"No, good thinking via, i have 4 unused irqs, so you probly should put the sound card, nic, video card, and scsi controller all on the same one."
I would like to suggest a Detox Tea regimen for anyone that feels that they have been exposed to more than their fair share of toxic materials. My mother; for instance, has been drinking this stuff for years and almost all her major ailments (arthritis, gall stones, and kidney stones) have been alleviated more so than the medicine she was prescribed. I myself take it only sparingly and have noticed a few things, my lung and nose mucus is clear unless I go to the city and a few blackheads I have had for years have dissapeared on my face. I guess I will have to keep drinking it to see if it can get me to lose this last 20 lbs without exercise, heh.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
good job!
Most new boards are lead free. All the parts use BGA chips so there are no leads sticking out of them. :)
Lead is used to keep the tin solder from growing whiskers through crystalization. By removing lead, leads will short together when the whiskers grow enough. Consumer electronics manufacturers don't really care, because now you'll end up replacing your electronics more frequently as they mysteriously die. This is a huge problem for those of us trying to design electronics for long term (30+ year) applications. We see things dying within a couple of years when lead isn't used.
So, the end result is more used electronics in the landfills, along with all the associated bad chemicals still used in their production. Once more, the Greens announce they've won without considering all the unintended consequences.
Obviously, the lead had to come from SOMEWHERE, right? I'm going to take a stab in the dark, and guess that it came from either the earth, or aliens. Since, although I support the belief of extraterrestrial life, I find it illogical that they would want to sneak lead to earth, the lead probably came from earth.
/.
when I was a kid, my mom would always tell me to put the damn bread back in the damn fridge when I was done making the damn sandwhich.
Could somebody more learned in ecology tell me why we can't put the damn lead back in the damn earth when we're done with the damn products?
I mean, I realize that animals die because of it, but doesn't that just accomplish more natural selection? I don't see how it matters.
Then again, i'm an idiot compared to 99% of
I didn't even know there was lead on the mobo, no wonder my kids are retarded :(
If you consider the safe disposal and storage of spent nuclear fuel, the mining and prossesing of said fuel. A nuclear power plants are only economical to run if you have a domestic nuclear weapons programme, which will use the plutonium produced by your uranium fueled reactors.
DDT I dont know about.
First, few computers draw their power supply's rating. Their recommendations for that is when the card is being heavily used on an assumed fully loaded PC with a bunch of extra peripherals. Your PC is NOT drawing 450 watts *all the time* (or even part of the time, usually) when you have a 450 watt power supply.
Second, if you can figure out a way to significantly reduce the power required by chips while maintaining performance, you will be fabulously wealthy and revolutionize the world of computing. Power draw is a HUGE concern. Remember that the vast majority of computers sold these days are actually in battery powered devices (all your cell phones, pdas, calculators etc have processors in them now)
-
first, many eu companies produce in taiwan, malaysia and so on. second, many non-eu companies produce in eu (amd in dresden for example)
Conservatism: The fear that somewhere, somehow, someone you think is your inferior is being treated as your equal.
So the designers of the PPC 970FX are fabulously wealthy computing revolutionaries? Well, they certainly deserve more praise and material reward than the makers of Prescott. Now if only yields were a bit higher...
Others here talk about 1 Kg Pb in a TV, you see that a lot. What happens is that people divide number of metric tonnes of Pb used by each TV and say that is the lead used. And that is wrong. What happens is that after a number of solderings the solder bath has to be renewed. And it is renewed by recirculating it, not dumping it in a lake at night and buyng fresh lead. Doing the maths again you see it is far less than a kilogramme Pb in a TV.
We had the authorities in here on that issue. He didn't know this either. So he asked just how much lead there really is and when we told him he simply packed up and left!
And solder contains more than Pb, there is Ag, Sn and Bi, occationally others too in varying mixtures.
But Pb-based solder is soft, making electronics mechanically robust. These first generation Pb-free solders are more brittle making things more fragile so don't expect it to be used in life critical items like pacemakers and aircrafts from day one.
The ban of lead in the electronics industry is only the beginning. :-) discover all the nicey materials used in assembly, packaging and silicon wafer processes.
Just you wait until the environment hippies
I mean, Beryllium and Gallium Arsenide just sound unhealthy, right?
Well, yeah, you're right. They actually are....
Hint: Don't go licking the walls in the manufacturing facilities.
You are an idiot. Environmentalists are not only concerned about the heavy metals emitted by nuclear plants, but about the catastrophic effects of an accident at a power plant.
Have you heard of Chernobyl? Well, if that's too far away for you, maybe you would like to look into the missing fuel rods at this Vernmont nuke plant
A pencil size rod is missing and it is enough to make a dirty bomb and kill thousands. Even if it isn't used in a terrorist act, it will be fatal to anyone who comes into contact with it without being properly shielded. Considering that no one knows where it is, we don't know how many people have already died.
Those are the real concerns of the environmentalists that you ridicule. If you were to fairly criticize them, you would do the honorable thing, which is to fully articulate the position of those that you critique, so that others can really weigh out the arguments.
Pragmatism as an ideology is not particularly pragmatic in the long term. Keep it in mind when you dismiss Free Software
I can't help thinking about this story,
9 23 0
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/06/044
Some chip makers went green, and it killed their reliability a few years later. Hence a zillion useless Fujitsu hard drives.
I hope they have done huge testing, or else landfills will be clogged with a lot more computer parts.
Of course, given my experience VIA stuff doesn't last that well anyway. When I'm working on a flakey computer with a dying MB, I usually see a VIA chipset on it.
------- Mark
VIA and Yamashita aren't the first people to produce lead-free computers. NEC had one back in 2001/2002. What's with the ignorance of everyone?
Smelting Aluminium is a high energy process. It takes less energy to smelt recycled aluminium than it does bauxite.
omicoo--
With all this lead leaching into the environment, where the hell did it all come from to begin with??? Pantyhose aren't birth control...