Air Pollution is Bad for Computers and Other Living Things

Intel, one of the world's largest producers of computer innards, has discovered that they have a problem:

"According to the processor titan, many boards were found to be suffering from the sort of sulfur corrosion that is seldom seen by technicians outside of heavy-duty factory environments."

Photo from The Guardian

The faulty equipment has been found in the India and China data centers.   As you all know, burning coal produces sulfur oxides, and in the presence of normal atmospheric moisture, that creates sulfuric acid.  It is not advisable to soak computer chips in sulfuric acid.

Last month a choking cloud of air pollution 4,000 per cent as dangerous as the World Health Organization's recommendation of daily airborne particulate exposure virtually shut down Harbin, one of northeastern China's most populous cities.

More here at The Register.