Chips weigh heavily on environment

NEWS

The production of a microchip requires a hefty amount of materials, energy and water, and has an environmental impact that far outweighs its miniature size, according to a study. Researchers estimate that producing a single 2-gram chip used for memory in personal computers requires at least 1.7 kilograms of fuel and chemicals. The study, funded in part by the Fulbright Foundation, will appear in the December print edition of Environmental Science & Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society. The researchers, who included Eric Williams from the United Nations University in Tokyo and Miriam Heller of the National Science Foundation, followed a 32MB dynamic RAM chip through every level of its production. What they found was that producing a chip required 1.6 kilograms of fossil fuels, over 100 grams of chemicals, about 32 kilograms of water and 0.7 kilograms of gases such as nitrogen. "The public needs to be aware that the technology is not free," said Williams, the lead author of the paper. "The environmental footprint of the device is much more substantial than its small physical size would suggest." The results reinforce a growing call to regulate the production and disposal of personal computers. Earlier this year, US Democrat representative Mike Thompson introduced the Computer Hazardous-Waste Infrastructure Program (CHIP) Act, pointing to the potential environmental harm from some of the materials that make up a computer. He asserted that 70 percent of heavy metals, such as lead and mercury, in US landfills comes from electronic waste. Compounding the issue, environmentalists say, is the perpetual upgrade cycle as people seek out newer, more powerful computer models. Because it's so small, the microchip has been upheld by many in the industry as a prime example of dematerialisation -- the concept that as technology progresses, the materials and energy required to manufacture the final products should be lower. But the study calls into question this long-held assumption. A microchip's energy and material requirements stand out in comparison with those for an automobile. The study notes that one passenger car needs about 3,300 pounds of fossil fuel. Although that's far greater than what's needed for a microchip, the study says that the ratio of the manufacturing phase's fossil fuel and chemical inputs to the weight of the final product is about 2-to-1 for a car, but 630-to-1 for a microchip. The disparity stems from entropy, or the amount of disorder in a system, the researchers said. Microchips and other high-tech goods are considered extremely low-entropy, highly organized forms of matter. But they are created out of high-entropy starting materials that require large amounts of energy to be transformed into low-entropy materials, the study shows. The researchers found that there is a general trend toward lower entropy of goods overall, which could imply a continuing rise in the amount of energy and chemicals required to produce an increasing number of high-tech products, including cell phones, notebook computers, desktops systems, servers and gaming systems. The study, however, concedes that it is unclear how much this high-energy impact is offset by savings from increases in processing efficiency.

See the Hardware News Section for the latest update on everything from MP3 players and PDAs to supercomputing. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

Don't forget to check out apps like GoodReader or SlideShark either, they're indispensible for people on the go in presentation situations. Best...

53 minutes ago by tinycg on Four top iPad apps for people on the move

Well it seems there is something a number of us agree on. Why is the Ubuntu Unity launcher so ugly? I thought perhaps it was something to do with...

6 hours ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Duplicate comments are not made intentionally. Its very good to know that now you are keeping check on this problem because sometimes a commenter...

15 hours ago by Freebies202 on Microsoft fixes blog comments, speeds up blogs with open source

"the very significant number of users" and "many (most) of us" - you have no evidence for these statements. It is a fact that most users are saying...

23 hours ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Another grammar faux pas is the improper use of "you". When sitting down down in a restaurant, for example, I get cringe when the waitress...

1 day ago by Marg Menzies Harrison via Facebook on 10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid

And NOW, folks, for Canonical's next trick... Kubuntu is late. Here's a pencil. Draw your own conclusions. cf.:...

1 day ago by zdnetukuser on Linux Minterface

@kevinmchapman. The discussion here reflects the very significant number of users who really do like the traditional menu system and who wish to...

1 day ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Er, no... It is an efficient means of finding the application/file/setting you need in one place. The icons are a simply a fallback for when you...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Isn't the provision of a text based search an admission by the developers that the mass of icons approach does not work? I don't need to use a...

1 day ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

"Unity and GNOME 3 both abandon the old text-based cascading menus in favour of a graphical icon-driven system." Point truly missed. Both use a...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

whs001 - Thank you, I'm glad you liked the article. I absolutely agree with you on your first point. I should perhaps have made it clearer that...

1 day ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

If we allow corporate interest to dictate the way our government circumvents due process against foreign entities then we should accept the same...

1 day ago by Dennis Nilsson via Facebook on ACTA stumbles in Germany

I totally dislike pirating of works, I fear that artists will be deterred from creating works if they think that they are going to get ripped off....

1 day ago by GHar123 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

2 days ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

2 days ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

2 days ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

2 days ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

2 days ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Excellent article. One small correction, though--although a fresh installation of Linux Mint 12 will, indeed, provide the user with a version of...

2 days ago by bdantas on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

2 days ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Chips weigh heavily on environment

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Recycling venture aims to scale mobile phone mountain

MIPS: Measuring environmental impact of IT

Special report: Who pays for recycling hardware?

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

PHP Web Developer - html, css, javascript

Java Developer, Online Gaming, London

Quant Dev, Hedge Fund, FX, Excel VBA

Inside ZDNet UK

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

BlackBerry Bold 9790

Make faster, smarter decisions using BI

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Business of IT / IT Strategy

Chips weigh heavily on environment

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features