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How Motherboards Are Made: A Gigabyte Factory Tour
pcstats.com — Without a doubt, motherboards are the most complex and essential part of the modern PC. Take a look at how one is made and all the steps it goes through.
intricate- 911 diggs
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- aaronlidman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0heh i saw that when it first came out, funny thing is i now own the mobo they're making in all the pics.
- hotwaterham, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Fun story.
- Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hasn't this already on the front page before?
- esellerauction, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If I has I have not seen seen it, very cool..digg dugg
- chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Nice
- LatvianHedgehog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0slooooooooooooow
- ianashley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I thought the CPU was the most complex and essential part of the modern PC?
- szym, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1old... last year on slashdot
- master_of_fm, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Gigabyte motherboards suck
- Gregd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0is it down for anybody else? I can't get to it..
- Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"I thought the CPU was the most complex and essential part of the modern PC?"
But a CPU is just a ton of transistors, it's not THAT complex when you think about it. So I'd have to say the motherboard is the most complex part of the modern PC for sure. - dextroz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I agree with you Tobey, the mobo has to interact with many components in a fail-safe manner which makes them all the more complex... or fault prone - there are just too many dependencies involved.
- dvdcr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0and OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!!!!!!!!
- gadgetbox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0...and PCStats dies under the load of digg.....
- wtfunkymonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0bad link / digg effect
- btitus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Do they show the step where they add the exploding capacitors?
- SupaDawg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Do they show the step where they add the exploding capacitors?"
I was thinking the same thing when i saw the name "gigabyte" - clumsyninja, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That component assembly line is depressing.
- Ace2005, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Would someone please put this on rapidshare or bittorrent and post a link PLEASE
- inotocracy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Would someone please put this on rapidshare or bittorrent and post a link PLEASE"
Bittorrent an article on a website? Some people... - Ace2005, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0oh its not a video
stupid me
should have been a video - LordRahl72, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You all got it wrong. By far the most complex part is the high end video card.
- paul_c, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0And I thought the stork brought them...
- nullbrot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well I can't get to it either, but I was an SMT equipment engineer for 15 years, so I've seen the assembly line now and then. Technology wise, the CPU is perhaps the most "complex", as well as the HDD and the rest of the ICs. But surface mount manufacturing is somewhat labor intensive and there are upwards of 15-20 processes that a mobo goes through, including substantial test and rework. The chemistry and physics of the manufacturing, although not more complicated that IC fab, are more wide ranging and require a larger range of skill to support.
Some SMT electronics assembly is still done in the US (Solectron, Jabil, Flextronics come to mind) and Europe but of course the vast majority is now in the far east.
Ironically, my wife's laptop is in pieces on my desk with a mobo issue, but I can't find the bad part. I was an assembly process engineer, not test, after all. - tw0bit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"The most complex part of a computer?"
What about the Processor? That is WAY more complicated.... - Cambo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0the most complicated 'confusing' part of the computer is the user! well the users we deal with anyway.
- Rajio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0^^ zing!!
- olorinpc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0anyone get a mirror up before the site bit it?
- geeky, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Ahhhh... what a blast from the past. I used to work in this industry in a Test Engineering role within a manufacturing plant and have many fond memories to this entire process. I find it rather interesting that Gigabyte did not farm this stuff out to Contract Manufacturers (sometimes referred to as sweat-shops). I suppose that’s because it is already overseas (Taiwan) labor rates are already low :) Most US based OEMs do not build their products in-house, normally in-house activities are for design and development. Majority of OEMs farm out for cost cutting reasons (usually overseas). I suppose that since Gigabyte is already overseas it nullifies outsourcing.
I currently work in the defense industry (Nuclear weapons) which NEVER gets farmed out overseas for obvious reasons.
Checkout our division’s end product here.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/wms/findPage.do?dsp=fec&ci=14884&rsbci=14699&fti=124&ti=0&sc=400
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_missile - rft3rd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I work for a SMT and assembly company in Baltimore called Practical Technology. While we dont make PC based Mobos, we do make Pcboards for vaious applications. A video would have been great to show the unknowing just how the machines pick/place the parts and the (as someone stated earlier) labor intenstive sequences of setup, production, reflow, washing, touchup, through-hole, testing, inspection, testing, testing, testing, repairs if needed to final product. i can image that through hole (hand placements for most part in my company anyway takes the longest time.
each an devery part on the mobo has to be inspected for placement, and polarity if needed so image int he time needed to inspect each and every board.
I still am fascinated by the machines we use and they arent even that high tech. (we use zevatech/juki 740's, 50's and 60's) - possum, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0at first I thought the title was
"how motherf*(ker are made"
he he
that was silly - sparkmonkeyz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i like it, i just wish it said how much it costs tomake one w/ the processor.
Dugg... - ev0l, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'd love to go on that tour so I could stuff that POS I bought from them up their ass's. Gigabyte, never again.
- AaronD12, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Neat link; old news.
- xafan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't understand how it's that complex. Even an optional component like a video card is more complex which is essentially it's own little computer in it's own right.
- Vladk1000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Cool story. Dugg.
_________________________
http://ultra-tech.blogspot.com/ - Jibberish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"But a CPU is just a ton of transistors, it's not THAT complex when you think about it. So I'd have to say the motherboard is the most complex part of the modern PC for sure."
How can you say that? A modern CPU does not have a ton of transistors, it has more than 50Million of them in a package smaller than 1 square inch. That metal casing around the processor is there for heat-sinking reasons, and to make the pin-outs to the actual piece of silicon is inside. All of this stuff is also going on at a scale of ~90nm. That's 0.00000009 meters. Dealing with electrical properties like capacitance and inductance at Gigahertz frequencies on a microscopic level is not a simple engineering problem. - chrislewis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Didnt realise there was so much manual labour in it - I thought it would be fully automated.
- pasqualiej, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1judging by my last experience with a Gigabyte board......I was expecting monkeys and legos.
- jwalk81980, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Be more responsible.
Complain less.
Be more attentive.
Make lesser mistakes.
I love that sign. - Banzai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I took a tour of the Hitachi plant in Norman Oklahoma 6 years ago and I am never at a loss for the accuracy, discipline, and precision the Japanese work with and the processes developed, 6 sigma is right at home, fine job on the story.
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