Samsung has a new upcycling initiative in the works; demonstrating the principle by building a mining rig from 40 Galaxy S5s. The company isn’t talking about the rig itself, but rather how it ties into a new programme that aims to repair and repurpose old devices.
As far as efficiency goes, the Galaxy S5 mining rig doesn’t do much more than modern purpose built rigs. Which isn’t surprising. It’s not meant as a show of capability, but rather intent. As were the several other projects on display at Samsung’s developer conference. Including a tablet repurposed into an Ubuntu laptop and Galaxy S3 fish tank monitor.
Samsung’s Galaxy Upcycling programme is still a placeholder page on GitHub, but that should change in the near future. The company is said to be creating a community built around repurposing its old devices. It looks to be that Samsung is preparing a series of projects to get the community started, but ultimately looks to be building a hub where people can upload their own projects to be shared.
Upcycling has a similar goal to recycling in that it tries to cut down on waste by reusing materials. However, unlike traditional recycling, upcycling repairs devices instead of breaking them down for components and precious metals. Ideally, this cuts down on the cost of industrial level recycling; which should also help the environment.
Samsung itself is not saying when the programme will be officially launched. But it should be relatively soon.
[Source: Motherboard]
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