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Sand and CPU creation (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

You need silicon.

The earth's crust is about 25 percent silicon. Sand made out of quartz like desert sand is about 50 percent silicon. Beach sand is usually mainly calcium carbonate from shells and it doesn't contain much silicon at all. Volcanic beach sand is more likely the same as the earth's crust so 25-50 percent.

So as long as you refine your sand/gravel/rocks/lava so that you're left with pretty much pure silicon, you're good to go.