[HN Gopher] The Long Trip from Silica to Smartphone
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The Long Trip from Silica to Smartphone
Author : sohkamyung
Score : 113 points
Date : 2025-09-25 12:07 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
| scorpioxy wrote:
| Interesting and still going through the article but I thought a
| lot of the metals would come from Africa. Somewhere like the
| Congo. I read a few articles a few years ago about how the
| conflict there was being fed by the multinationals that want
| access to the rare-earth metals that the area is famous for.
| Specifically, the allegation was pointed at telecom and
| smartphone manufacturers.
|
| Learning about the conflict that has been going on for quite a
| while, makes me believe that something is fueling that fire.
| Didn't expect to see Spain as step 1.
| Aurornis wrote:
| You're thinking of tantalum, which is only used for a specific
| type of capacitor.
| bilbo0s wrote:
| "only"?
|
| Because there are so many alternative materials fit for
| purpose. /s
|
| That "only" is kind of "Jedi Hand Wave"-esque.
|
| That said, neither Spain, nor Congo are the be all end all.
| The required resources exist elsewhere, but I mean.. you
| know.. money and politics.
| Aurornis wrote:
| > That "only" is kind of "Jedi Hand Wave"-esque.
|
| The "only" is because the article was not about tantalum
| capacitors, and therefore it didn't come up in the article.
|
| I was not making any comments trying to diminish any
| problems. Merely explaining why it's not in the article per
| the parent comment.
| close04 wrote:
| Congo is the largest supplier of Cobalt (70% of the world
| supply). This is why a lot o battery manufacturers advertise
| their reduced reliance on Cobalt.
| chromehearts wrote:
| I think Congo was especially rich about Lithium! Which is
| primarily used for batteries of course
| ____mr____ wrote:
| I wondered the same thing and apparently China, India, Brazil
| and Turkey outrank Spain in exportation of quartz, it was just
| the authors decision to go with Spain (probably because it was
| an example of a direct line from quarry to furnace?) but yeah,
| this is obviously not the only route that makes chips.
| gsf_emergency_2 wrote:
| I was amused that higher quality quartz from Spruce Pines NC
| (Sibelco) doesn't go into the chips themselves, but the
| silicon crucibles (makes sense in retrospect because you need
| your tools to be finer than the product, but as a chip-
| user..) and display glass
| ypk2 wrote:
| 5. Processed Wafers
|
| Great visualisation from Branch Education:
| https://youtu.be/B2482h_TNwg
| solstice wrote:
| Mindblowing to see the staggeringly high tower of tech upon
| which modern chips are build. Machines capable of nanometer-
| precision movements at speeds subjecting their parts to 7G of
| acceleration... 25KW lasergun pew-pewing tin droplets 50k times
| per second... The sheer complexity of modern chip designs...
|
| It really evokes Douglas Adams' quip that "Any sufficiently
| advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
| peaseagee wrote:
| Just FYI, that was Arthur C. Clarke. Douglas Adams is also
| extremely quotable, just that one wasn't his.
| solstice wrote:
| Oh thank you! Should have listened to my inner voice
| pushing me to verify the quote's origin
| komali2 wrote:
| The massive supply chain for transistors / chips is something I
| chew on as one of the big unsolved problems of localization of
| supply chains, something I think most communities (and nations)
| should be taking very seriously in the face of geopolitical and
| environmental destabilization. Plus it's better for your economy
| or whatever, I don't know, it just seems crazy to me that entire
| economies can collapse if one country decides to close its mines
| or another country decides to blockade the country where all the
| chips are made.
|
| There's always guys like this: https://simplifier.neocities.org/
| whipping up stuff in their backyard, but so far as I know there's
| no serious alternatives for general computing that I could, with
| serious organization with, say, my entire city and the
| surrounding countryside (which includes some mines), use in case
| of global destabilization to start building our own computers.
|
| Tinfoil hat guy maybe but I think we should have that kind of
| backup plan ready. Just in case!
| ragebol wrote:
| Interesting, the Simplifier dude. Curious when he and John
| Plant of Primitive Technology will meet with their content.
|
| The tech tree both of these people have under their belt are
| huge, but the work Primitive Technology has to put in to get
| close to Simplifier's start is still huge. So much work
| required to get even a bit of metal.
|
| Getting back to the level we're in as as society right now
| after a global catastrophe is going to a take quite a while.
| Some of the information to get going again is digital, so
| accessing might be impossible if things are bad enoguh
| amelius wrote:
| Now I know why people walk all the way to Santiago de Compostela.
| It's the birthplace of their smartphone.
| skandinaff wrote:
| "The result is silicon metal and carbon monoxide."
|
| The article keeps mentioning of silicon metal, but wasn't silicon
| a metalloid at best?
| philipkglass wrote:
| "Silicon metal" means "elemental silicon" in this context.
| Silicon was first industrially important for the manufacture of
| specialty steel, so some of the vocabulary is still influenced
| by its early proximity to steel production.
|
| "Transactions of the American Electrochemical Society v. 29
| (1916)"
|
| https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433090838537&se...
|
| _SILICON-METAL_
|
| _A special steel of great importance to electrical industry is
| silicon steel, used in electrical transformer construction and
| all alternating-current apparatus. Silicon metal and 75 percent
| ferrosilicon essential in its manufacture are produced only at
| Niagara Falls. The ageing of transformer steel has long been
| the cause of a serious falling off in efficiency. This loss
| often doubled after a few years ' use. Silicon steel does not
| age. Moreover, its original hysteresis loss is 25 percent less
| than that of the old type of steel._
|
| _The saving in a large generating and distributing system from
| the generator through step-up and step-down transformers to the
| motor may be as high as 6 percent. Thus silicon steel, a
| comparatively unknown product, is saving many millions of
| dollars annually wherever electric energy is transformed._
|
| _Silicon metal as a "preparedness" product is important in the
| generation of hydrogen for aeronautical purposes. In
| conjunction with caustic soda it forms the cheapest method of
| generating hydrogen in the field or on shipboard when portable
| outfits are required._
| physarum_salad wrote:
| "Computing with rocks"
| moralestapia wrote:
| If this isn't magic I don't know what it is.
| NetMageSCW wrote:
| Reminds me of the story of trying to make a cheeseburger from
| scratch which requires practically all of civilization.
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