Monday, July 27, 2009

Green Computing : RoHS


Restriction on Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) is a law in the European Union that bans the use of six toxic materials in the manufacturing of components of electronic and electrical equipment. Under the RoHS directive equipment must have less than 0.1% (or 1 000 parts per million) concentration of Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Hexavalent Chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ether. The directive applies by weight of homogenous material, which means that if any part of the device fails to comply with RoHS, the entire device fails. Currently, RoHS applies to eight categories of devices, large and small househol device, IT equipment, Telecommunication equipment, consumer equipment, lighting equipment, electronic and electric tools, toys and sport equipment and automatic dispensers. Medical devices, and monitoring and control instruments are exempt from RoHS as of now, but are expected to comply to it in the future. A lot of large manufacturers include big name like AMD, Apple's iPods, Dell and HP home computers and servers, and Motorola's RAZR phones.