AMD Sells Lead-Free Processors

23 Jul, 2005 at 11:00am ET Article published in Tech

AMD said Wednesday that the company has successfully removed lead from its microprocessors to meet European environmental regulations.

AMD said that in early July it began selling versions of its Opteron, Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64 FX, Sempron and Turion processor families that meet the lead-free RoHS regulations, about a year before the regulations go into effect.

“The lead-free transition is now under way well in advance of regulatory deadlines,” said Reed Content, AMD’s senior manager responsible for environmental health and safety, in an interview.

Source: Eweek

Comments

23 Jul 2005 ~ 3:15pm drasnor As good as this sounds it really isn't a good thing. Unless they've come up with a new lead-free solder that actually works we're going to see failure rates soar as solder joints fail. Think pins falling out of your processor.

BTW, the actual article is at http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1839164,00.asp

I think I would have heard about it if there were decent lead-free solder available. It would be everywhere.

Dell has also designed PCs with lead-free power supplies and other components

I was wondering why so many Dell power supplies were failing of late.

-drasnor
23 Jul 2005 ~ 6:17pm RWB I was wondering how good of a thing this would be. I wasn't sure what the lead was even for, I figured it to be a contaminate that they might have found a way to get rid of and thus perhaps make the processor better in some way, or what drasnor said. It being used for some purpose that not much else can do cheaply.
23 Jul 2005 ~ 6:41pm profdlp To be honest, I view this sort of thing as being more of a "feel good" move than being a solution for an actual problem. How much friggin' lead can there be in a CPU anyway?
23 Jul 2005 ~ 7:59pm lemonlime I think the EU's decision to ban lead from electronics is a great move. The number of electronic devices in our landfills is ever-growing, and although it may be a small amount in relation to the rest of the device, it can still have a significant environmental effect. As an added plus, those working in electronic manufacturing can enjoy a safer, less toxic working environement.

I second drasnor's worries about solder quality. I just hope that they have improved the Pb free solder avaliable.
23 Jul 2005 ~ 11:43pm RWB

lemonlime wrote:

I second drasnor's worries about solder quality. I just hope that they have improved the Pb free solder avaliable.

Pb = Peanut Butter? J\K!
25 Jul 2005 ~ 1:26pm deepsea I don't think that the issue is finding lead free solder, but rather cost effective lead free solder. I work for a plumbing component supplier (faucets) and lead free has been the norm in our world for years. You just have to replace it with something that provides the same performance. Silver has a low melt, but costs more. Tin is too low by itself, but a 95 tin / 5 copper has a relatively low melt, has high strength, and is not too expensive.