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.'"

Not the first lead free mobo?

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:VIA is reliable

[Kenja]

"I'm sure this board will live up to the VIA reputation."

VIAs reputation is poor at best. The last VIA board I owned (KT133) wouldn't post if you had a SCSI card and a PS/2 mouse hooked up at the same time. Search around on Google, most of the VIA chipsets are rife with problems.

So, what is in there?

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:Pay a premium for the board

[BillyBlaze]

In that article, PCBs refers to polychlorinated biphenyls, a poison, not printed circuit boards. I'm not aware of any connection between the two.

A telling story

[dc_dog]

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!

How about.....

[Creepy Crawler]

No water needed for making? What was it? 150 gallons of water just to make memory sticks?

Re:Correct.

[ewhenn]

When you state that "coal plants release more radition and heavy metals into the environment than nuclear plants", do you mean as a whole, or per output unit. Surely there are MANY more coal fired plants than nuclear plants thus it might be easier to surpass the gross output. What we REALLY should be concerned with is Units of heavy metals per KWH (kilo watt hr) produced.

Re:Green Computing

[Halfbaked Plan]

CRTs are a pain to dispose of?

I put two to four of them at a time out there and the trashman hauls them away. For our regular $15 per month trash pickup.

You probably just live in the wrong locality. I buy lots of used computers and scrap out a lot of stuff.

Just wondering...

[Cyno01]

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.

Re:A nice start, but...

[another_henry]

the PCBs in the transformer that go with their power supply

I don't know about your other points, but PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyl) are most definitely not used in computer PSU transformers. Back in the 1960s they were used as a flame-retardant additive to oil in big "pole pig" transformers that supply houses or whole streets. When they were found to be carcinogenic (and only mildly so, I might add) use was discontinued and they are absolutely forbidden from being used in any equipment manufactured nowadays. In fact I think it's an offense to even own anything that contains them.

FWIW I've heard second-hand stories of old electric company techs who would literally swim in the stuff. Cancer rates for them weren't significantly higher than the general population.

Lead is endangered

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the EPA should protect lead because it's going extinct, and not just in motherboards [remingtonle.com]. I guess if someone is going to get shot, better to do it in an environmentally sound way?

---------
Mobile porn [steamymobile.com]

sources of environmentalism

[feelyoda]

just thought I'd give pause to all those that think they are fighting the pig capitalisms in their green efforts.

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 [cato.org] here: [cato.org]

President Bush today commemorated Earth Day in Maine, where he is touting his environmental policy and highlighting his plan to restore wetlands in the United States.

"Earth Day is traditionally a day for the Left -- a celebration of government's ability to deliver the environmental goods and for threats about the parade of horribles that will descend upon us lest we rededicate ourselves to federal regulators and public land managers," writes Jerry Taylor, Cato Institute director of natural resource studies, in "Happy Earth Day? Thank Capitalism." He argues that businessmen, not bureaucrats, "deserve most of the credit for the environmental gains over the past century."

"Indeed, we wouldn't even have environmentalists in our midst were it not for capitalism," Taylor writes. "Environmental amenities, after all, are luxury goods. America -- like much of the Third World today -- had no environmental movement to speak of until living standards rose sufficiently so that we could turn our attention from simply providing for food, shelter, and a reasonable education to higher 'quality of life' issues. The richer you are, the more likely you are to be an environmentalist. And people wouldn't be rich without capitalism."

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/

so, big deal...

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:PC has met motherboards

[scdeimos]

The mix of tin and lead in solder varies somewhat depending on the application, with 60/40 and 70/30 being common. I was curious myself about the claim of "Lead-Free" since every solder joint in the system would have to have lead, right? From VIA's Lead-Free Manufacturing [via.com.tw] page:

...and the solder balls now consist of a tin, silver and copper composite.

Of course, I don't know what everyone's got against lead. If all the claims you hear were true then my old man (who breathes in solder fumes for up to 80 hours a week) should have died of lead poisioning forty years ago. He reckons milk is the answer. :)

Re:PC has met motherboards

[canajin56]

I don't know about milk, but apparently cilantro (coriander / Chinese parsley) can help. When patients are given soup with plenty of cilantro juice in it, their levels dropped much faster than those who are receiving normal treatment only. Of course, this isn't scientific evidence, and they have no idea if it works on its own, or just as an aid to conventional chelation. Still, it is something to keep in mind.

Re:Green Computing

[greenhide]

Technically, you're not suppposed to do this. Components like this, along with things like batteries, aren't supposed to go to the normal dump. They're supposed to be hauled to a special sectioned off part of the dump, and the days during which you can do this are limited. This is true where I live, at least (Central Virginia).

Plus, my understanding is that outside of the States, regulations are even stricter. Of course, I've heard that in some countries, a recycling tax is added to items like computers, and the companies are thus responsible for the costs of safely disposing of/recycling the computers. Anyone who knows more about this care to share?

Re:Green Computing

[HermanAB]

Well, at least the lead in the CRTs is inside the glass, in the form of a complex crystal, so it ain't goin nowhere...

sure, it is all a big conspicary...

[dunkelfalke]

first, many eu companies produce in taiwan, malaysia and so on. second, many non-eu companies produce in eu (amd in dresden for example)

Re:Correct.

[slittle]

With coal all that radiation is dumped into the air slowly.

Quoth Dans Data [dansdata.com]:

Of course, what power costs you, the consumer, isn't what it costs, full stop. There's greenhouse gas emissions and other power plant exhaust pollution, depletion of resources, destruction of wilderness by mines and their associated infrastructure, and more.

Most of Australia's electricity is generated by coal-fired power plants, which emit an awful lot of carbon dioxide. And coal plant fly ash contains radioactive uranium and thorium in surprising amounts [ornl.gov]. Even if the ash is effectively caught by filters, something still has to be done with it.

Not that fly ash scraped out of a filter and dropped into a bucket is actually amazingly dangerous stuff, but waste of similar levels of activity that happens to come from nuclear power plants is treated like pure megadeathium. You certainly can't get away with burying it in dams [uic.com.au] .