What is Digg?61 Comments
- xrisnothing, on 10/11/2007, -4/+44Yeah, Asians have tiny hands. Asian children have even tinier hands. Their soldering is nearly flawless, even in tight spaces.
- mattc908, on 10/11/2007, -5/+33Mother Boards made from child labor are my favorite kind, I actully don't buy products unless it has the stamp Made in China by: Children.
- Azio, on 10/11/2007, -0/+23Be more responsible
Complain less
Be more attentive
Make lesser mistakes
Rules we should all live by. - vroom101, on 10/11/2007, -2/+23Daughterboards (daugther-board) actually exist.
- ShrimpCrackers, on 10/11/2007, -1/+22Please don't confuse Taiwan, one of the richest democracies in the world, with China. Taiwan does not have iPod cities, or fulltime working children/teens (but we do have paperboys just like America etc), and is for all intents and purposes, Westernized.
The population makes about half as much as an American (Canadians make about 2/3rds) but everything is half as cheap. There is no censorship of the internet, everyone has the right to free speech, civil liberties and press freedom is actually rated higher than the United States by Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, and even Freedom House (I know shocked me too when I found out).
Taiwan also has one of the most vibrant night life in all of Asia. Taiwan sports the largest and most technically advanced dance club in all of Asia, run by UK's Ministry of Sound. The most famous dance club is Luxy, famous not only for the design of the place but also employing some of the best bartenders in the world. Many clubs are prix fixe with unlimited beer for an $18 entrance fee. Because Taiwan is so hot all the clubbing women wear bikini tops and short shorts.
Taiwan also has the highest concentration of 7/11's and other convenience stores in the world, where you can literally find them every two blocks and as a result they handle everything from food, catalog orders, taxes, to parking tickets.
A high number of the population votes, and there are over 10 news channels that run throughout the day and are much more partisan. The Discovery channel rates among the most popular in Taiwan, along with JET which is the Japanese Entertainment Television and is more akin to Youtube in the amount of hilarious craziness that goes on.
There is a lot more you can find out from Taiwan and the place has much more in common with Japan and the United States than China. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+19With sand and a poking machine.
- agrabob, on 10/11/2007, -3/+17Foxconn makes iPods.... in China.
This is Gigabyte in Taiwan, where most mobo's are made. - unangst, on 10/11/2007, -1/+14... And behind this door we solder the capacitors. We got a great deal on the formula.
- smackhero, on 10/11/2007, -3/+15gotta love this picture: http://www.extremetech.com/slideshow_viewer/0,1205,l=&s=1005&a=209248&po=15,00.asp
the guys are like chillin in the back by the water cooler while all the women are hard at work. - aura, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12A much more in-depth article from atomicMPC on the same factory tour:
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp?CIID=83273 - Urusai, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13It carries nutrition for happy conformance.
- mabhatter, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9There's nothing remotely "sweatshop" here. The place is environmentally controlled better than most office buildings, the floors are not "squeaky" clean but probably cleaner than your kitchen at home...so you don't lose those tiny parts on the floor!!! not that you'd eat off them. All the worker had ESD foot straps and the little blue anti-static jackets so they don't zap the parts. It's busy and there's some very boring parts, but it about like working at an auto assembly plant... (other than the welding operation auto lines are nearly that squeaky clean and boring too nowdays.)
I thought a lot of the captions were awful. It's always funny to read what a tour thinks is going on when you actually work at a place like that. - thenativeraver, on 10/11/2007, -4/+13Mmm egg yolk pie.....
- geminitojanus, on 10/11/2007, -3/+10*Fewer mistakes.
But hey, a few are tolerable. - theatrus, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7The "we don't know what this is" appears to be a machine to apply solder paste to the boards over the appropriate mask.
Yes, it does come in paste, and its actually very very expensive. - hyperfocal, on 10/11/2007, -5/+12Lesser mistakes is correct if they are telling people to make smaller mistakes.
Just solder a capacitor on backwards rather than solder your wedding ring to the board. - bluerei, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Thats in XinDian, I lived 2 minutes from the factory, it's HUGE but nice. Fits snuggly in a residential area and made the exterior very nice to compliment the natural surroundings of the area. The Asus factory was 3 minutes away when I lived in XiZhi, and Lian Li computer case factory was 30 minutes from where I lived in JiLong. All in all, I got a lot of discount computer parts. oh and Lenovo was 1 minute walk in taipei.
- VeganG, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7How did they make the computerized machines that make the motherboards? Aagghh, mind asplode!
- BigglesPiP, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7The 1st one he doesn't understand is solder paste for the surface mount components. It's printed "silk-screen" style onto where it's needed. The 200*C bake activates it.
The normal scale (non surface mount) components have legs poking through the board which pick up the stuff from a wave pool of molten solder. - TheProGeeks, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6This is a much more detailed article on How a Motherboard is Made .
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1722&page=1 - ChileanGoD, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5MBILF?
- donte, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4@chileangod
The pain of chafing would be indescribable... so no. - WayneMan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I always thought that if the Fatherboard loves the Motherboard that they would lie very close together, and eventually produce a Daughterboard that would mature into a Motherboard of her own some day.
- KyleMistry, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Well, when an irresponsible Manboard and Womanboard forget to use protection...
- Jibberish, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4That slide where he says,
"To be honest, I'm not sure what this machine does. I wasn't able t oget an answer before we moved on, and then it was back to snapping pictures. It almost looks like this machine is making the PCBs, though."
That machine is applying the solder paste for all of the surface mount components. A stencil is manufactured out of thin sheet metal where cutouts are made. The stencil is pressed firmly over the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and everywhere there are cutouts, solder paste is applied to the surface of the PCB. This is accomplished by wiping a metal squeegee across the stencil which is what you see in the picture. The pick-n'-place machine then simply places the surface mount devices onto the sticky solder paste and it goes on from there. - sarnia, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I laughed at this.
http://www.extremetech.com/slideshow_viewer/0,1205,l=&s=1005&a=209248&po=18,00.asp - gemlarin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3yum, that tour was worth the egg yolk pie surprise.
- combatchuck, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Complain less.
- holysocks, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3the translation on the board on the ceiling is wrong
http://www.extremetech.com/slideshow_viewer/0,1205,l=&s=1005&a=209248&po=24,00.asp
it should be -
planned: 2000
goal: 1450
actual made: 1429
difference (from goal): -21 - mattvogt, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Make lesser mistakes.
- Anonymous3, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Needs more powerhouse.mp3
- themastersb, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Was that an egg yolk pie at the end of the pictures?
- 98acura, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4@sarnia (#7201252)
Did ya? - gheide, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Nice P35 board being made... DDR3 and all... in the slideshow
- CaputNoodle, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3I agree this one is more detailed and has more technical info.
- Ecl1pse, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@holysocks
Thank you for pointing out the correct translation. Based on the original quote I was puzzled to see they appered to be running a near 50% failure rate on the boards! - cyroxos, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I am guessing you live in Taiwan, shrimpcrackers?
- ShadowKlown, on 10/11/2007, -4/+5*sigh* This was on digg a few months back, was cool then, still pretty cool now, but was hoping it was maybe a different facility this time.
- Cyberdactyl, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Oh yea, 2 of those at lunch and we all know how you'll spend your mid-afternoon break.
- MyDigitalSin, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2my god this takes me back. I worked three summers (between uni) at factories, making a variety of crap but one summer I was making motherboards for the military and medical fields.
The worst jobs I've ever had. Sometimes at night I would dream about doing my job. It was just terrible. - kd1s, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Hey Shrimpcrackers - no doubt it's westernized. That's it's prime market.
The only thing that bothers me is that China considers Taiwan to be a wayward province and occasionally rattle its sabers in your direction. And if push comes to shove and China does try to take Taiwan back, the U.S. is pretty much committed to helping to push China back.
But I think before long China will come around. It's starting to right now. The communist government can't hold out for much longer. - smackhero, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2with the relatively small size of Taiwan and all the computer parts manufacturers based there, i guess it's probably pretty common to have at least one of those companies a close distance away. it is the Republic of Computers after all...
- BassJunkie, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Definitely the better and more thorough article, actually has more pictures and better descriptions of each step rather then a 1 or 2 line caption under a picture!
- ScottMaximus1, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Make Lesser Mistake!
- KMartSheriff, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I am agreeing with his agreement that this one is more detailed and has more technical info.
- xenophrenia, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0; )
- xenophrenia, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1As someone who manufactures boards for places like Siemens and Juniper - it's amazing to see how similar the process is - and what surprises me the most is that these are considered Class 1 (while what we manufacture are Class 2 & 3) they inspect their boards more than we do .... Our company uses Universal and Electrovert machines on surface mount. I didn't see an Xray inspection - we use that on any BGA type components. Very fascinating actually. ..... It's not just Asian countries that do this .. the company I work for is right here in the USA.
- jman8888, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Makes Me wanna buy a Gigabyte
- OBKenobi, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1You dupe bastard.
http://digg.com/hardware/Gigabyte_motherboard_factory_tour
Furthermore, here is a tour of ECS's factory!
http://digg.com/hardware/How_A_Motherboard_Is_Made_2 - Metasquares, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1There's a surprising amount of manual labor in spite of what looked to be a reflow soldering operation.
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