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Computer Chips Made of Wood Promise Greener Electronics

Posted by samzenpus on from the it's-not-easy-being-green dept.

alphadogg writes: Researchers in the U.S. and China have developed semiconductor chips that are almost entirely made out of a wood-derived material. In addition to being biodegradable, the cost of production is much less than conventional semiconductors. According to the NetworkWorld report: "The researchers used a cellulose material for the substrate of the chip, which is the part that supports the active semiconductor layer. Taken from cellulose, a naturally abundant substance used to make paper, cellulose nanofibril (CNF) is a flexible, transparent and sturdy material with suitable electrical properties. That makes CNF better than alternative chip designs using natural materials such as paper and silk, they argue in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications."

4 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. HCF joke in 3...2...1... by willworkforbeer · · Score: 5, Funny

    And it specializes in Bamboolean operations...

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    Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
  2. Stupid by BitZtream · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So they replace the substrate with wood ... instead of silica ... the argument being that wood is plentiful and biodegradable and biologically safe ...

    Except ... Silica is more plentiful and more biologically safe since its essentially biologically inert.

    As an advantage, silica is NOT biodegradable, because I want my chips to last, not fall apart over the winter when it sheds its leaves.

    Silica is NOT the issue for the environment in CPUs, its the production materials and doping agents that are horrible on living things and hard to dispose of.

    So congrats ... you solved a problem ... wait, no, you didn't really do anything productive. Not seeing any redeeming quality about a chip produced this way and seeing plenty of down sides.

    Whats next, you're going to try and convince me that the aircraft carrier made of sawdust and ice they tried to construct during WWII really was a brilliant plant for a warship sailing in the south pacific?

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    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    1. Re:Stupid by tyme · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Except that this substrate is not being used for Si based semiconductors, but for GaAs instead. Also, using the wood-based substrate means that you can use 99% less of the semiconductor material (GaAs which is rarer than Si, and also poisonous). This will make specific classes of electronic devices (specifically radio and microwave frequency devices) much cheaper, and much less hazardous to dispose of, which is a big win.

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      just a ghost in the machine.
  3. Oh the puns write themselves by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 5, Funny

    How can you tell how old your iPhone is? Call it and count the rings.

    Landscapers are becoming in demand because of their ability to provide wood chips.

    Play Nintendogs, now with more bark.

    Search functionality vastly improved for native binary trees.

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    God spoke to me