Slashdot Mirror
AMD Graphics Chips Could Last 10X To 100X Longer
An anonymous reader writes "According to a research report out of UCLA, released this morning, NVidia's high-lead bump packaging could last anywhere from 1/10th to 1/100th as long as AMD's advanced eutectic bump approach. (TG Daily has picked up the claim.) NVidia is currently in the midst of a $200M recall of bad GPUs, and the report suggests that the issue could be much deeper than NVidia's PR department would have us believe." The report lends credence to the strident claims of the Inquirer's Charlie Demerjian, which we discussed a month back.
I have an old (circa 1980) roll of rosin-core eutectic solder, that I don't use any more because of the lead.
I also have a recently purchased some mgchemicals 4900-112G, it is 96.3Sn, 0.7Cu, 3Ag, with a "no clean" flux. It works ok with my old soldering ironing, flows nicely, no idea how it does with tin whiskers. I'm not getting a lot of trouble with cold joints, and I do push my luck (lots of free-hand work, for instance, in-place soldering of LEDs for under-cabinet lights).
"Eutectic" is a materials science word; it means (more or less, and I'm refreshing my memory from Wikipedia) a mixture (alloy) that does not separate/segregate into its original metals when it freezes; it has the lowest melting point, and passes immediately from liquid to solid phase. If, say, you have a solder that has more lead than the eutectic mix, when it freezes, it will segregate into (tiny) bits of lead and a eutectic remainder as it cools.
The advantage of a eutectic mix is that the melting point is lower, and when it is melted, it is all melted, and flows nicely. There are probably some caveats and quid-pro-quos for how it behaves in contact with other metals, which will certainly go ever-so-slightly into solution and change things.
Most companies offer at least a year long warranty; if they have significant failures in that year, like 10-100x higher than normal, that may put too much pressure on their warranty policy.
And let's not forget nVidia's partners in selling cards (you know, all the non-nVidia nVidia cards). Those people may see high failure rates of nVidia parts, and all of a sudden using another chipset just got a heckuva lot more attractive.
So, the moral of the story is, there is no set 'time' that a card will die. It's not like after 10 months all of them will just conk out. But if there are higher failure rates than normal in their warranty period, not to mention harm done to their reputation, it could end up costing them greatly.
Just because you don't like the truth, does not make it false.
Solder is actually hypoeutectic, meaning it melts at a lower temperature than any of its component metals alone (and still remains the same alloy, which you mentioned).
There's also hypereutectic which means the opposite, obviously. A lot of pistons are cast with a hypereutectic alloy to keep costs down (forging is expensive) while increasing the melting point.
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
"Since the plastic energy produced in the eutectic SnPb layer in the composite joint is about 100 times larger than that in the homogeneous eutectic SnPb joint, we expect the cycle times needs to fail the latter will be 100 times longer. But the above model is ideal, nevertheless it is reasonable to say that it is at the least 10 times longer. " A) They didn't test ANYTHING. B) They admit their ideal model is probably not realistic, and actual difference could be much less C) They admit this does not mean actual life-time of products and explicitly suggest testing in that regard. D) /. needs to stop posting sensationalist crap like this. The article is interesting, the title is bullshit. If I want sensationalism I will turn on my TV.
"Dictator Flakes. They WILL be delicious."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
How to fix bloated ATI drivers :
1] Download full CCC installer.
2] Don't install the CCC, just the drivers.
3] Download a copy of ATI Tray Tools.
Big! Strong! Wow! Tada-O!
That's the whole point of this fiasco.
NVidia began to update their manufacturing process in the middle of the life cycle of several chips.
They switched to eutectic pads and a new underfill material (which has a lower glassification temperature).
They stuck with high-lead solder because the bumps are laid out very early on and changing them would be a major undertaking.
Basically, this causes shit to break down faster because the parts are now much more susceptible to thermal stress.
NVidia knew there were problems.
Laptop parts started failing at very high rates.
OEMs knew about the failures in November of 2007, or earlier.
NVidia blamed OEM designs creating thermal issues.
NVidia offered to foot half of the bill (replacements, handling customers, fixes, etc.) with DELL and HP.
DELL and HP jumped at the chance to have the massive bill cut in half (this kind of offer is unheard of).
NVidia's "fix" was to crank up the fans with a BIOS update.
OEMs found desktop parts were failing at alarming rates as well.
OEMs were forbidden from speaking out about the real issue (lumped in there with that "we'll pay half" deal).
OEMs find out that their designs do meet NVidia's recommended thermal and electrical constraints.
NVidia continues to sell existing bad cards that are on shelves, and makes no mention of any of this to customers or retailers.
NVidia switches away from high-lead solder, completing the updates to it's manufacturing process, and may now be pumping out good parts.
But these new parts have not had any power distribution / control changes to accommodate the new solder material.
These new parts will likely have higher-than-normal failure rates as well.
NVidia does NOT designate the new parts in any way on the box.
NVidia does not designate the new parts in any (official) way on the actual hardware.
News comes out (last week) that NVidia based chipsets (motherboard chipsets, e.g. nForce) are bad too.