https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/features/inside-intels-chip-factory-i-saw-the-future-its-plain-old-glass/
Intel is moving its processors to a new foundation to try to keep up with exploding demand for new computing horsepower.
I just hope this doesn't mean Big Tech is incentivized to buy up lots of beach sand from poor cities already dealing with hurricanes.
Beach sand, if you didn't know, is an important barrier between the land and oceans and greatly affects the size of waves that come crashing into the coast. Big rocks and other substrates just don't calm waves like ocean-eroded sand can.
The problem for chipmakers is not the sourcing of materials itself, but the purity of the sourced material. So don’t worry about public beaches disappearing into Intel’s hopper-feeder.
That totally makes sense that they would need pure sand, idfk how to make that work. But if Intel needs rounded sand grains, then they need to find another way to erode sand into that shape cause ocean sand is quite unique from the billions of years it's had to tumble in the ocean. Otherwise Intel will indeed be using ocean sand.
Also it occurred to me that making chips on glass could be more recyclable since glass is also recyclable. 🤔 Would be good if that happens!
Let's not be hasty.
Surely free-range, organic, gluten-free sand would be the bestest source material ever.
Oxygen and silicon are the most abundant elements in earths crust. Glass is silicon oxide.
I really don't think we have a shortage of sand. And you also have to consider how small computer chips are. Compare how much sand you need for a glass window versus a few CPUs.
Besides that, they wouldn't take sand from public beaches..
We are, in fact, running out of sand. The amount needed for chips compared to other products per unit may be small, but it will exacerbate the issue if not well managed.
But that's due to glass, concrete and so on. Building materials.
Global sand consumption has reached 50 billion tonnes a year, or about 17 kilograms per person per day
Even if every person in the world gets a glass CPU and GPU, that would only add a few grams of consumption. Once, not per day.
It's such a tiny amount that's it's entirely irrelevant.
Sand is a non-renewable resource
Not all beaches are public, and not all are in America where there are laws that protect beaches.
Funny you say that because we are running out of sand. We can produce it but it'll just make things more expensive. Gangs have been stealing beaches
This caught my eye, The IPhone 15 Pro has as many as 20% transistors compared to a modern intel supercompute GPU. Wild.
“Apple's new iPhone 15 Pro has 19 billion transistors. Intel's Ponte Vecchio supercomputing processor has more than 100 billion.”