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How Motherboards Are Made

Posted by Zonk on from the no-elves-involved dept.

Techno-consumerist writes "Ever wonder how motherboards are made? How all those little electronic bits and pieces are put in place, and how each board is tested? PCstats takes a look behind the scenes of the Nan-Ping Gigabyte factory in Taiwan, and documents the amazingly complicated process from start to finish. Very cool, but surprising about how much labour goes into each board."

6 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. ..great by mrsev · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well I for one find this story great. I find it very interesting how the process is done. Finaly the 1st April shit is over.

  2. MB most complex part? by Bender_ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    from the articles: Without a doubt, motherboards are the most complex and essential part of the modern PC.

    I dont know, I think the manufacturing process of the CPU and memory is slightly more complex. The entire process from wafer arrival to package shipments takes 2 to 3 month.

  3. Re:Nice poster by Lisandro · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Demand less pay" is cut from the picture too.

  4. Re:Motherboards most complex part of PC??? by vidarlo · · Score: 5, Insightful
    FTA..."Without a doubt, motherboards are the most complex and essential part of the modern PC." Wouldn't you say that the design and manufacture of CPUs are at least a level of magnitude more complex than mothermoards?

    Absolutely. A motherboard is a assembly of other parts. Although it requires some care to design it so all fits together, it is still just a assembly. Even southbridge is more complex than a motherboard...

    --
    Assembling etherkillers for fun an profit
  5. Be happy but be aware by awfar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Cheap hardware relies on someone willing to do it that cheaply; how long can this last?

  6. Re:Education required for designing these plants? by chang3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From my second (or third) hand knowledge. Formal education (sitting in the classroom, etc) is not the main point. It really requires studying the problems at hand very hard and constantly tweaking and refining. They may speak lesser English, but they do know to pool experiences from all the displines mentioned in this thread together.

    This is NOT to say whoever designed and maintained such a plant do not have education. Most of them have advance degrees. Typical job opening needs a college degree just to get the resume in. AFAIK, the salaries for entry-level engineers starts around US$15,000/year. Not great, but certainly not pennies per hour that some /.ers thought. And the compensation is HEAVILY loaded with bonuses and stock options. It is not unheard of the bonuses being several times of salary for a good year.

    Oh, for those who are interested in some certain phone numbers: send some Karma over and I'll see what I can do.