Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Intel Plans to Get the Lead Out of CPUs

By

Chipmaker Intel has announced that its future processors will be entirely free of lead, a move which reduced the environmental impact of both manufacturing and recycling/reclaiming materials from the chips once they’ve reached the end of their life cycles. Intel says its entire family of 45 nm Hi-k processors—including the Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, and Xeon processors—will be lead-free when they begin production in the second half of 2007. Intel plans to extend the lead-free manufacturing process to its 65 nm chips in 2008.

“Intel is taking an aggressive stance toward environmental sustainability, from the elimination of lead and a focus on greater energy efficiency of our products to fewer air emissions and more water and materials recycling,” said Nasser Grayeli, Intel’s VP and director of assembly test technology development, in a release. The company has been working to reduce and eliminate lead from its products for a number of years, and has reduced the amount of lead in its processor products by 95 percent. With the current announcement, the company will eliminate lead from its processor products altogether. Intel plans to replace the lead solder remaining in its products with an alloy of tin, silver, and copper.

Recommended Videos

Although lead isn’t an integral material to the CPU chips themselves, it is used in several “packages” which envelop a chip and connect it to a system board. Package designs var between platforms, with pin grid arrays, land grid arrays, and ball grid arrays being the most common. Developing and deploying a replacement for the last of the lead solder apparently posed significant engineering and manufacturing challenges.

Related

Historically, lead has been used in a wide variety of electronic applications due to its malleability, resistance to corrosion, and poor conductivity (making it a good insulator). However, the metal has significant environmental and public health impacts; lead poisoning can damage nerve connections and impair cognitive function and development, especially in children.

Editors' Recommendations

Geoff Duncan
Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
Blue Screen of Death: What it means and what to do if you get one
The Blue Screen of Death seen on a laptop.

The BSOD, or Blue Screen of Death, is an iconic error screen that anyone who's ever used a Windows PC has liekly come across at one time or another. It's no fun, and it can mean there's a problem with your PC that needs fixing. But in most cases, it's just one of those things that crops up, and simply keeping your PC updated will be enough to prevent it from coming up again.

Here's everything you need to know about BSODs and what to do if youget one.
What is a BSOD?
The stop error screen, or as it's colloquially known for its blue coloring, the BSOD, is an error screen that appears when something has gone critically wrong with your PC. It doesn't mean it's fundamentally broken, but it means something has gone so wrong with it that it can no longer function and needs to reboot to get working again.

Read more
What to do if your Intel CPU keeps crashing
Pins on Core i9-12900K.

Despite being among the best processors you can buy, some high-end Intel CPUs have faced a wave of instability over the past few months. Intel is investigating the problem, but the company and its motherboard partners have already worked toward some temporary fixes to improve stability on high-end Intel CPUs -- even if it comes at a performance cost.

Before getting into the fixes, keep in mind that they are temporary. Intel will release a statement on the instability soon, likely with more direct guidance on what affected users should do. In addition, the scope of the problem isn't clear -- if you're not experiencing issues, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
Who's affected

Read more
4 CPUs you should buy instead of the Intel Core i9-13900K
Intel Core i9-13900K held between fingertips.

Intel's Core i9-13900K is one of the best processors you can buy. The 24-core behemoth can rip through productivity workloads with ease, and it's easily one of the fastest gaming CPUs money can buy. Even with so much power under the hood, it's not the right choice for everyone.

Supreme power comes at a supreme cost, and for the Core i9-13900K, that comes in the form of heat and power draw. In addition, a recent wave of instability has hit Intel's high-end CPUs like the Core i9-13900K, making alternatives a bit more attractive.

Read more