Category Archives: Microchips and computers

All vehicles (cars, trucks, ships, trains) have microchips. All computer Systems would stop working: Financial, Transportation, Health, Industry, Infrastructure (the Electric Grid, Nuclear Power Plants, Oil refineries, etc), Satellites, GPS, computers, cell phones — virtually every electronic device has microchips. All microchips have a limited and short lifespan because there are always impurities and other internal metals and substances that migrate over time and slow the chip down and eventually cause it to fail.

Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips

Posted on March 8, 2024 by

Major semiconductor producing countries rely on each other for different types of chips. Top semiconductor producers’ 2021 export values by source and destination, billions USD.  Source: PIIE 2022 https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/major-semiconductor-producing-countries-rely-each-other-different-types-chips Preface.  We have become insanely dependent on technology that can’t possibly … Continue reading →

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The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital economy

Posted on March 1, 2024 by

One minute on the internet around the world. Source Infographic by @LoriLewas and @officiallyChad, 2020. Preface.  This is a book review of Pitron’s “The Dark Cloud”. Of note is the huge amount of electricity and rare earth and other critical … Continue reading →

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Interdependencies & supply chain failures in the News

Posted on July 11, 2021 by

Preface. Joseph Tainter, explains in his famous book “The collapse of complex societies” how complexity causes civilizations to collapse. Fossil fuels have created the most complex society that has ever, or will ever exist, using fossil energy that can’t be … Continue reading →

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Microchip fabrication plants need electricity 24 x 7 for four months

Posted on June 25, 2021 by

Preface. I explain in both of my books, When Trucks Stop Running and Life After Fossil Fuels, why heavy duty transportation and manufacturing can’t be electrified, as well as why the electric grid can’t stay up without natural gas to … Continue reading →

Posted in Blackouts, Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Electricity Infrastructure, Interdependencies, Microchips and computers, Preservation of Knowledge | Tagged , , , , | 27 Comments

The Fragility of Microchips

Posted on February 6, 2021 by

Preface. This is an introduction to how microchips are made to give you an idea of how difficult and amazing they are.  This is a very high-level overview gathered mostly from the textbooks of Quirk (2001) and Van Zant (2004). … Continue reading →

Posted in 2) Collapse, An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Interdependencies, Localization, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Microchips and computers, Supply Chains | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

How are microchips made?

Posted on January 31, 2021 by

Preface. Computer chip fabrication plants need to run continuously for weeks to accomplish the thousands of steps needed to make microchips. A half-hour power outage at Samsung’s Pyeongtaek chip plant caused losses of over $43 million dollars (Reuters 2019). Chip … Continue reading →

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Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil

Posted on January 28, 2021 by

Preface. The wood-based world of the future simply won’t have the energy and minerals required not just to make electronic devices, but the precision machine tools to make them.  As diesel fuel grows scarce and the economy fails, supply chains … Continue reading →

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High-Tech can’t last: limited essential elements with limited lifespans

Posted on June 8, 2019 by

There are 17 rare earth elements in the periodic table. About nine of those elements go into every iPhone sold… and if China were suddenly to disappear from a map tomorrow, Apple would lose about 90% of those elements.  Source: … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Cascading Failure, Microchips and computers, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Supply Chains | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments