VIA Technologies Makes Computers Healthier

by Anton Shilov
04/24/2004 | 04:01 AM

VIA Technologies this week said one of its partners had begun production of a mainboard using the so-called lead-free manufacturing technology. The move indicates possibilities to cease using lead in production of PCs, but it is not clear whether the technology picks up soon.

In traditional manufacturing processes of print circuit board-based devices, lead is used to attach the chip to the mainboard/PCB through tiny solder balls on the underside of the package. With VIA’s lead-free manufacturing technologies, the solder balls now consist of a tin, silver and copper composite.

The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) European Union directives went into force in February 2003. The instructions require personal computer makers to implement product lifecycle management programs (including free take-back programs) and the removal of certain hazardous substances like lead, by 2008 from production lines. A number of chipmakers are now switching to healthier technology processes, some computer makers begin to employ take-back programs.

This week VIA Technologies, and Yamashita System, a supplier of industrial automation systems, announced the AS-1210, the world’s first lead-free mainboard based on the VIA Eden Platform. Now entering mass production, the AS-1210 Micro-ATX mainboard integrates the fan-less VIA Eden ESP processor and the VIA CLE266 chipset with the VIA VT8235 South Bridge and will be on display at Techno-Frontier show from the 21st to the 23rd of April, 2004 in Tokyo at the Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall, booth No. 7203.

VIA Technologies also claims that its manufacturing of all VIA Eden ESP, Antaur and C3 processors and a wide range of VIA chipsets and companion chips, is lead-free, making it possible to produce totally lead-free motherboards, such as the new AS-1210 from Yamashita System.

While VIA’s lead-free initiative complies with RoHS and WEEE, the Taipei, Taiwan-based chip designer does not produce its processors or PCs on their base on its own and cannot control the whole process. The company orders dies for its chips to contract semiconductor manufacturer TSMC, then asks some other companies to pack the cores into actual chips. After the chips are made, VIA ships them to its partners who make mainboards, graphics cards, audio cards or any other equipment based on PCBs. After the devices are made, they are shipped to PC makers. Quite some companies in this chain use lead and other hazardous things and that is something beyond VIA’s control.

Some other chipmakers, such as Intel, are pretty skeptical about lead-free production, as the usage of lead by the PC industry only accounts for 0.5% of its usage in the world. Batteries and military equipment utilize times more lead than all IT companies. Furthermore, reliability of substitutes for lead and impact of the new process technology on the lifespan of processors is something Intel is pretty concerned about.

Even though VIA seems to head into the right direction, the industry in general is likely to become more or less lead-free only when it becomes strictly compulsory, that is around 2008 for the EU.