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Intel wants to have conflict-free processors by the end of 2013
Intel had already promised that it would avoid using conflict minerals, and now it's giving itself a more concrete timetable for that to happen. It wants to have at least one processor that's proven completely conflict-free across four key minerals -- gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten -- by the end of 2013. Lest you think Intel's not taking swift enough action, it wants to reach the tantalum goal by the end of this year. The effort's part of a wider array of goals that should cut back on the energy use, power and water use by 2020. Sooner rather than later, though, you'll be buying a late-generation Haswell- or Broadwell-based PC knowing that the chip inside was made under nobler conditions.
Just say no: Apple and Intel stop using conflict minerals
While the US government hasn't issued an outright ban against the use of 'conflict minerals' coming from the Congo, it has passed a law that will require companies who use them to tell all of us when our gadgets have been paid for (in part) with blood. Looks like Apple and Intel weren't too keen on the bad PR that would come from such disclosures, and joined the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition and its Conflict-Free Smelter program. The program requires mineral processing plants either prove that they don't fund the ongoing hostilities in central Africa or peddle their war-supporting wares elsewhere. For now, that means that the folks in Cupertino and Santa Clara will have to find other sources for the three Ts (tungsten, tin, and tantalum) needed to sate our technological appetites.
New law requires gadget companies to disclose 'conflict mineral' use
When President Obama put his pen to the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act last week, it wasn't just financial reform he signed into law, but also a stipulation that may affect your gadget purchases down the road. You see, at present your technology includes some amount of tantalum, tungsten and tin, three rare earths that happen to be mined heavily in the Congo... and thus indirectly linked to poverty, rape and death. The new US law won't stop that, and doesn't restrict any sort of trade -- it merely requires companies to disclose the use of such materials in independent audits filed with their annual financial reports. It does, however, allow companies that don't use bloody rocks to label their products "conflict-free," so we're sure astute marketing gurus are developing plenty of new all-plastic gizmos even as we speak. For the children, of course.
