Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

22 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Profit margin? by Mortiss · · Score: 5, Interesting

    With the amount of work going into making of each motherboard and cosidering the amount of automation in the process how much does it exactly cost to make a single m/b? What is the profit margin when it arrives at my local computer store counter?

    1. Re:Profit margin? by roman_mir · · Score: 5, Informative

      It looks expensive? That's something I'd expect to hear from an uneducated, unwise, five year old kid. At most these plants cost tens of millions. - oh really? The building itself where they are located is tens of millions of dollars. Tens of millions doesn't even begin to address the basic product line layout problems, you dolt. At Christie Digital where I worked on a contract the double door air shower itself cost over 50K. And that's not including the maintenance contract. It's not even about any single expensive machines (like their automated 8floor storage facility) it's about putting it all together. During my last contract the engineers I worked with talked about their experience of setting up much simpler plants for semiconductor manufacturing. That is in order of a few hundreds of millions.

      --
      You can't handle the truth.
    2. Re:Profit margin? by burnin1965 · · Score: 4, Informative

      With a little research I think you will find that you are wrong about the pricing of computer parts. If you were to look at individual offerings for a company you would find that some parts have high margins while others have low margins. But the overall effect of the mixed margins and the extreme pressure of competition in the hardware industry is resulting in very low margins.

      And for some facts to back it up, take a look at Gigabyte's 2001 - 2002 financial statement at http://www.gigabyte.de/Company/Stock/pdf/fs_093001 _02.pdf

      Or to make it quick, in 2002 their overall gross profit margin was a mere 18%. $94,639,000(USD) / $498,739,000(USD) = 0.18975...

      As a worker in the hardware industry I have the opportunity to see first hand the extreme pressure placed on workers to keep costs down all in the name of maintaining market share and sustainability. So you can imagine that when I hear some bozo from Microsoft telling the media that hardware manufacturers need to cut costs further because the cost of a PC with Windows is too expensive for the developing nations I look at the 80% profit margin at Microsoft and think that perhaps the solution is to dump the expensive Windows.

      Anyhow, I'm starting to rant. I just wanted to point out that competition in the hardware industries is rather extreme and the result is very inexpensive components. In some cases they are inexpensive to the point at which sustainability of a business model becomes questionable.

      burnin

  2. ..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.

  3. Where are the fatherboards? by Bongoots · · Score: 4, Funny

    From my understanding, motherboards can have daughterboards.. but where are the fatherboards?

    Illegitimacy seems rife in the computing world! o_O

    1. Re:Where are the fatherboards? by mysticwhiskey · · Score: 5, Funny
      My guess is that the fatherboards refuse to perform garbage collection, misinterpret the communication protocol with the motherboard, and are constantly scolded for eyeing off the newer models of GPU's.

      Thus they are kept in solitary confinement far from the eyes of the public and are used only to pump out offspring. It's solely for the XY86 chromosome, I'm sure.

      --

      Stuck down a hole! In the middle of the night! With an owl!

  4. 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.

  5. Nice poster by Anonymous+Writer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Check out that "fine motivational strategy" sign on page 10...

    Be more responsible
    Complain less
    Be more attentive
    Make lesser mistakes

    Yay. I feel so motivated just reading it.

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

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

  6. must be the same guy. by the_mind_ · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Guy that made the sign on the airshower door must be that same guy that translates the manuals that comes with the motherboards.
    "Please Push and Pull the Door Tenderly" :-)

    --
    You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.
  7. Re:PCB by imroy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow! And all this time I thought it was referring to Polychlorinated biphenyl. Man, they really cleared that up for me!

  8. Awesome by ksilebo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not to sound like an ingrate, because this is really cool, but I'd love to see a video tour of this. Growing up in the 80's I have fond memories of randomly catching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and watching him tour some factory. I'd like to see that in the factories today.

  9. how much labour goes into each board by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The amount of labour that goes into a board depends entirely on the relative cost of labour and machinery.

    For a long time, we have been able to build completely automated board facilities. Since the seventies, we have been able to build and test boards completely untouched by human hands. Automation is really expensive so even in North America such facilities are rare.

  10. 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
  11. Re:You don't need their phone number - just use an by a16 · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you ever been to Taiwan you'd know most girls there look absolutely great (it's not only me noticing this). I don't know how did they achieve it.

    How do you know he's interested in their looks? This is slashdot - he probably just wants a free motherboard ;)

  12. Re:PCB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Whenever you have an acronym (you know, these capital letters tied together and meaning nothing) you can use the google "define:" feature :
    Google define:PCB

    It works with plain words too : this one could be of some use to the average ./er
    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3Awoma n

  13. Testing by netrage_is_bad · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I find it interesting how much time they put into testing each motherboard. It looks like they spend more time testing it than assembling it.

  14. Re:Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not in the US. Two MOTHERboards ?!? Sanctity of marriage !!!

  15. Stress Tested by Paska · · Score: 4, Funny

    Each system is run through several hundred loops of 3D Mark 2001 in 40C temperatures. This tests stability under the most grueling of conditions.

    Now I know why I've never had much luck with Gigabyte boards, they arn't tested to Australian climates, they really need to test these things in 50+C temperatures as you can bet my room in Australia gets that high in summer.

    1. Re:Stress Tested by Dogtanian · · Score: 5, Funny

      Now I know why I've never had much luck with Gigabyte boards, they arn't tested to Australian climates

      Actually, I think you'll find your problem is that Gigabyte motherboards aren't designed to work upside-down.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  16. Other factories by sm8000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Abit: http://techreport.com/etc/2004q2/abit-tour/index.x ?pg=1 ECS/PC-Chips: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1891&p= 1 AOpen & Asus: http://www.digit-life.com/articles/mobofactories/ Chaintech: http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/articles/cha intech_taiwan/

  17. Writter oversimplified PCB Process by thebes · · Score: 5, Informative
    Gigabyte out sources the PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) it uses for its motherboards to a PCB manufacturer. These arrive already etched with the necessary circuit traces, pre-coloured and pre-drilled with the holes that are needed to insert components like the CPU socket and PCI slots. Other than this though, they are completely bare, containing no components or solder.

    For the ignorant ones, the making of the PCB's themselves is not a simple process. Think about the traces you see on the surface, then place about 4-6 layers on top of each other. The fact that the PCB's are outsourced takes a huge load off the remaining process.