Comment Articles

'Celebrating' the PC's one-billionth birthday

Matt Loney ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 03 Jul 2002 10:34 BST

So a billion PCs have now shipped. Although predictions say that we'll hit the next milestone in a little over five years, let's hope we never reach it -- at least not if this second billion resembles the first in any way.

Just consider what those one billion PCs represent. For a start this means close to one billion cathode ray tube monitors, each approximately 50 percent glass by weight, of which anything up to 25 percent is lead oxide. And that's not to mention the other hazardous materials such as phosphorous, cadmium, barium and mercury. Most of this goes -- despite upcoming recycling legislation in the US, Europe and Japan -- straight into landfill sites. In the UK alone, some 100,000 tonnes of old CRTs are dumped each year.

Then there are the printed circuit boards, which will number several billion, each loaded with chips and solder. Thankfully these are easier to recycle than CRTs, and in bulk the precious metals that they contain mean that recyclers are, in some cases, willing to pay prices linked to metal exchanges.

And I haven't even begun to talk about the billion-plus hard disks, computer cases, keyboards, mice and assorted other peripherals that must run into the hundreds of millions.

But recycling aside, the other reason we should laud the pending end of the PC is because the concept is slowly going the way of the humble electric motor, and that's no bad thing. Consider the last time you bought an electric motor. Now let me guess -- you probably never bought one, right? You may have bought a hand drill, a washing machine or a desk fan, but you did not actually buy an electric motor per se. A century and a half ago, when electric motors were creating a revolution in household appliances, it was common practice to buy a motor and attach peripherals to it depending on the job at hand -- much the same as we do with PCs today.