AMD ships chips with less lead

AMD today announced it began this month offering microprocessors with reduced lead content to customers worldwide, nearly one year in advance of a regulatory deadline to reduce lead in electronic products.

AMD is committed to developing products that optimize energy use, save money and help protect the environment. AMD has been striving to reduce the lead content of its PC processor and chipset products and to transition to lead-free for several years.

The European Union has established a directive that restricts the use of lead by electronics manufacturers. The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) legislation takes effect July 1, 2006.

AMD began offering RoHS-compliant processors earlier this month, including the AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon 64, AMD Athlon 64 X2, AMD Athlon 64 FX, AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology and AMD Sempron families of processors. AMD also has several RoHS-compliant chipsets already available, including the AMD-8111, AMD-8131, AMD-8132 and AMD-8151 chipsets.

"AMD has been committed to using environmentally friendly materials in our operations," said Dirk Meyer, President and Chief Operating Officer of AMD's Microprocessor Solutions Sector. "AMD is steadfastly developing effective technical solutions that reduce lead content and achieve RoHS compliance without sacrificing other product features."

AMD began identifying solutions for production of lead-free semiconductor packages in 2001. AMD has formed a lead-free research and development program, and is working with suppliers and other industry leaders to establish lead-free standards and testing requirements, as well as to identify lead substitutes.

In addition to its own manufacturing initiatives, AMD is actively supporting a number of key consortia among industry, universities and trade associations to expedite the development of lead-free technology.

For further information on AMD's microprocessor lead-free initiatives, please see this page

Intel began shipping lead-free processors last year.