Beryllium Oxide CPU's?

Maybe someone can help me out here. I have an electronics technician friend who keeps going on about all the older ceramic cpu's are beryllium oxide based whether they are colored white or purple. I haven't heard of this anywhere and believe he is dead wrong. Anyone heard anything like this?

Hey I was just surfing and checked this out and here is a cut of what I found:

Accordingly, beryllium oxide (BeO) is not only hazardous, but also found in significant quantity in e-waste items. It is applied as filter in some interface materials (e.g., thermal grease used on heat sinks for computer processing units, CPUs and power transistors), magnetrons, x-ray transparent windows, heat transfer fins in vacuum tubes and glass lasers.

This was copied from here: Recyclability Potentials of Beryllium Oxide from E-waste Items in Nigeria

This is probably only a little head ways but it looks like it is in the "thermal grease" that was used between the heat sinks and processors. Hope that helps clarify a little bit. But I'm sure there might be other uses for it.

Originally Posted by tski72

Hey I was just surfing and checked this out and here is a cut of what I found:

Accordingly, beryllium oxide (BeO) is not only hazardous, but also found in significant quantity in e-waste items. It is applied as filter in some interface materials (e.g., thermal grease used on heat sinks for computer processing units, CPUs and power transistors), magnetrons, x-ray transparent windows, heat transfer fins in vacuum tubes and glass lasers.

This was copied from here: Recyclability Potentials of Beryllium Oxide from E-waste Items in Nigeria

This is probably only a little head ways but it looks like it is in the "thermal grease" that was used between the heat sinks and processors. Hope that helps clarify a little bit. But I'm sure there might be other uses for it.

****, I guess i need to stop wiping that grease off with my fingers. This might explain my twitch! lol