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Sand and CPU creation (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago by Tekkip20@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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So like, if sand can be used as the first "ingredient" of a CPU, is it possible to use other variants of sand? Or is there only a very SPECIFIC kind of sand used for CPU creation?

So you can't use fine sand from the beaches of a tropical island or black sand in Iceland?

Sorry if this is dumb, I thought it'd be humorous if you can use any sand as the first resource for building a CPU since they literally come from that source.

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[–] halfwaythere@lemmy.world 30 points 5 months ago (1 children)

No.

Sand to wafers… Fortunately, there is no shortage of raw material. Silicon is the second most common element in the earth’s crust, comprising about 26% and exceeded only by oxygen at 49%. But silicon does not occur naturally in the pure form needed for electronic applications, for which it must contain less than one in a billion non-silicon atoms. The starting material really is sand. Not just any sand, but silica sand, specially quarried for this purpose and having concentrations of quartz (silicon dioxide) as high as 95%.

https://semiengineering.com/from-sand-to-wafers/

[–] CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

You could probably use most sands or rocks, it’s just cheaper to start with more silicon dioxide since the purification processes will result in higher yields.