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rarz t1_ixupw6v wrote

I don't want my chips to degrade. Make them recycleable by all means. c_c

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4myoldGaffer t1_ixv57ht wrote

this should give those scalpers mushroom for a profit

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lunartree t1_ixvsz8c wrote

Hijacking this comment to say that's not what the article is talking about. These are normal plastic chips, but imagine if at a recycling facility they could use spores to biodegrade away the plastics and then recycle the metals.

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iRedditonFacebook t1_ixxmyp5 wrote

Where does it say that? it is about replacing insulation.

>The particular species of fungus is the Ganoderma lucidum, which grows on dead rotting wood in European mountains. As it reaches maturity, it creates a fibrous skin to protect its own substrate (the wood in this case) which if peeled off can instead protect microchips

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HunterXxX360 t1_ixycmmd wrote

Sounds like planned obsolescence to me. The worst thing for the silicon industry about silicon is: it doesn’t really degrade. With Moore‘s law alive and kicking the obsolescence came from new use cases and better performance. But without it we could use silicon for years or even decades.

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jbman42 t1_iy1ple3 wrote

It's very hard to make them perfectly recyclable because of how the materials are used, to begin with. A computer is the most cutting edge device you have in your house, with very sensitive parts that need to fulfill a wide array of tasks, and thus need a series of different parts that each require different materials. Even if you only take one component into consideration, there are still several subcomponents in there that need different materials to fulfill their roles. And the more different materials you need, the harder it is to recycle.

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