A Hardware Threepack

Johnath writes: "This just happens to be a great time to be a hardware junkie. For those interested in learning more about the metal under their PC's hood, Tom's Hardware has a great intro to PCB manufacturing, Ars Technica has recently written an architectural study of the P4, and ExtremeTech has a decent look at the South Bridge." The circuit board article is really good - explains it better than the textbooks I've seen.

Comments

In The Days Before PC Boards - and Do-It-Yourself!

[BigBlockMopar]

Tom's Hardware has a great intro to PCB manufacturing

That was a great intro, well written, and explaining the basics. Not so basic, however, is attempting to make your own PC boards.

It's easy once you've got the practice, and you can get all the stuff you need at Radio Shack (or better places).

Toner transfer is my method of choice. I stuck transparencies, like you'd use in an overhead projector, into my laser printer. I crank up the darkness of the page, so it puts a lot of toner onto the transparency.

Then, I print my board layout, in mirror image, onto the transparency. Rest it on the blank, clean copper-clad board, and run a hot steam iron over it for a few minutes. With some practice, you'll be able to transfer enough of the toner onto the board that when you etch the blank board, your layout comes through.

I've even managed to produce double-sided surface-mount boards for prototyping and testing the high frequency response of a radar video processing system using this technique, before we committed to actually having the boards mass-produced.

Two sheets of transfer sheet, toner side in, aligned very carefully and stapled together, then a nice long pressing.

He thought I was crazy, but I was able to confirm to my boss, before we shelled out $50,000 for the manufacturing run of PC boards, that the layouts we'd designed worked properly.

Multilayer boards, like modern computer components use, are impractical for do-it-yourselfers to attempt, but I once built a 4-layer prototype by carefully aligning two double-sided boards, made as above, over a third (blank, no copper) board, and screwing the whole sandwich together with machine screws. Carefully-installed plate-through holes were accomplished with scraps of wire soldered through. It took four tries before I got the alignment right and made the board useful for building the prototype.

If that sounds complicated, you should see how stuff was built before Westinghouse invented printed circuit boards. Imagine a modern computer built like that. Urk.

All this and I'm still unemployed. Hit my page for my resume and stuff.