5 Nov
2010
5 Nov
'10
1:17 p.m.
On Fri, 5 Nov 2010, Eric Smith wrote:
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:51:26 -0700
From: Eric Smith <eric at brouhaha.com>
Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
;
Subject: Re: exaggerated claims regarding gold in Pentium Pro (was Re: CPU
scrap)
Patrick Finnegan wrote:
Do they use gold-silicon eutectic die attach? If so I'd expect a lot of the
gold would be there (but nowhere near a gram or even 1/10th)
Peter Wallace
Mesa Electronics
A few years ago, a scrapper would give me just
over $6 per PPro in qty
1, so either he was an idiot (less likely), or there's something to
this.
I can think of a few other possible reasons that have nothing to do with
gold
content. The most obvious is simply that the resale value of a Pentium Pro
was well over $6.
Don't forget to include the bond-out wires,
the fact that there's two
pieces of silicon that need to be interconnected, and the gold plating
on pins.
I don't think those add up to more than a small fraction of my
estimate of
the amount of gold on the kovar lid, but that is why I allowed for being off
by an order of magnitude in my estimate, and yet the amount of gold even with
that fudge factor is far less than the wild claims being made.
Eric