This just makes me really SICK

From: William Donzelli <aw288_at_osfn.org>
Date: Mon Jan 19 17:13:49 2004

> There really isn't any gold in the chip itself, its all in the
> interconnecting wires from the outside pins to the actual small piece of
> silicon the chip is made on.

Well, yes. The is "no" gold inside the die - although gold was one of
the early dopants, but I think it fell out of favor late in the 1950s.

> the more pins to the socket the more gold there
> is. Especially on much older chips where thicker interconnects were used (a
> small cost compared to what the equipment was sold for).

It mostly depends on the maker and the chip. Sometimes (and the reason is
still unknown to me, even though I have been given an explanation by a
buddy in the fab biz) a run of chips will be mounted on gold plate, just
as sometimes they need to use gold bond-in wires. For example, most AMD
EPROM dies are mounted on gold, but some aren't. An equivalent Intel part
may almost never be mounted on gold. "Almost never".

> Most scrapper probably don't want to use space holding bulky computer
> equipment that only a few dozen people in the US would pay above scrap value
> for (and he has no way to find or contact them anyway).

This is also a concern, for the scrappers that are short of space.
However, some might not complain too much if they get a few times above
scrap value for a rack.

> Plus once you do buy something for a
> decent amount of cash you know dam well they be actively keeping those items
> for ebay (is it better to save a classic from scrapping to put in your
> collection cheaply or have it end up on ebay for crazy $$$$ you don't want
> to pay).

Maybe, but green talks as well. Loudly, sometimes. Yes folks, the IRS *has*
*started* auditing those that use Ebay.

> Circuit boards hold more gold in them per ton then the rich gold mines
> corporations operate. Most mines are not profitable until gold is over $400
> an ounce, making circuit boards even more valuable. No idea how much copper
> is in a board, but probably worth allot in a ton of circuitboards.

Good question. Probably a few hundred pounds, assuming halfway decent
computer stuff. Consumer electronics boards are pretty worthless, even
for the copper.

William Donzelli
aw288_at_osfn.org
Received on Mon Jan 19 2004 - 17:13:49 GMT