computer engineering

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer
If you want to work at Intel or AMD, you're gonna want to go with materials science/engineering, chemical engineering, or electrical engineering. Computer engineering might also get you there, but it'll be on a smaller road.

CS isn't what you think it is. It's twisted logic crap, and I regret taking it as a minor in undergrad.


I'm an EE/PhD. From my experience as an intern at Intel and from my day-long interview with Intel PTD, I'm going to suggest that you don't want to work for Intel. They treat you like crap and tell you that it's the "Intel environment".

Did you get that? They've actually given a name to treating their employees like crap. You know that's gotta be a bad sign...



No one knows what *fill in the blank* engineering is when they apply to college.

Good luck!

Sorry but this is complete BS. Intel was easily the best place I've ever worked. None of my peers thought any differently than I did.

As an intern I was treated just the same as a regular employee with all of the same benefits, bonuses, lunches, free t-shirts, etc. I made my own schedule in terms of when I came to work and when I left with no set lunch time. Team building days once a month where everyone got the day off to go hiking, mountain biking, or something similar were also great, and don't forget about the Intel sponsored white water rafting trip for every Intern at the site.

I worked closely with 5 interns from 4 other sites who all had the exact same experience. Every person I worked with liked their job and had only normal, trivial complaints. There was none of this stuff you are saying about treating their employees like crap and earning a name for it. Yeah the turkey bowling contest we had during Thanksgiving week really put me in a sour mood, especially because I got paid to roll turkeys around at 2 liter bottles of coke (bowling pins) in one of the larger meeting rooms for about 2 hours. Oh and the free pizza every Thursday for the entire 8 months I was there really pissed me off.


OP, I have 2 suggestions. First, ignore the dumbass I just responded to. Second, you should decide what you have a passion for and go with it. I was in the exact same boat as you when I was a junior in high school, and I mean this very literally. I didn't know what I wanted to do, posted a thread about it saying I potentially wanted to work at Intel, AMD, HP, etc., and then followed it through. By my senior year in college, I got an internship at Intel and got where I wanted to go. You can do it pretty easily if you put your mind to it. Yes, getting the internship was hard and not many will be picked by one of the high tech companies in this business, but if you want it bad enough you will get it.

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You are both right. It all depends on the type of envrioment you enjoy working in. To some, the semiconductor industry is the auditing industry of engineering. In other words, Intel is the Deloitte of Engineering. You can be worked like a slave, but the envrioment lets you do so in a manner where you could enjoy it. Some people are work driven and thrive under mass amounts of work, while others need to be in a paced envrioment. The semiconductor industry (especially companies like Intel) is the former and is very cut throat and demanding. It would not laid back as a company such as Sun Microsystems or most software companies.

 

[theeedude]

I am computer engineer, I don't do too much programming. That's why we have CAD team/tools. The most programming I do is maybe write a Perl script or Matlab program, and even that is more for my use to automate some mundane task, so I could do without it. Also, most of the math I do is back of envelope simple kind, or logic optimization. Everything else is done on computer by various programs, and is too hard to do on paper on large scale designs anyways. You do need to understand basic calculus but even that you won't use in digital design much. However, in analog design, it is more physics and more involved math, usually more pay too.
I design microprocessor and ASIC chips. Mostly my job involves taking behavioral model (RTL) and converting it to schematics to implement the function. For example, function may be addition of two 64 bit numbers, and I design an adder structure that does it. Also sometimes I design building blocks like flip flops or individual gates at transistor level. And sometimes I write methodology papers for other designers to use as reference.
I got offers from Intel and AMD, but went to another smaller company, so yes it is possible, if you want. I personally didn't like Intel, I think you will be small fish in big sea there, but technically they are very solid, and you'll learn a lot. AMD was better, but I think the company has some challenges ahead financially. I would want to see them successfully transition to a fabless model before joining. Chances are not bad if you are good student and have good understanding of electronics design. In general CPU projects have 100+ people and take 2+ years, while ASIC projects are a couple dozen people and take maybe 1 year. So you can start at CPU company like Intel for a few years where you maybe stay for one or two tapeouts and get a chip out after 3 years, while you get to experience various aspects at a slower pace, and then switch to an ASIC company where it's more fast pace and exciting atmosphere, but also more work. Generally the way to get quick and big raise is to switch companies every few years, because you will get more money joining another company than waiting for raise at yours. So you can move around. Just don't do it too often or they'll think you are opportunist.

 

[BrownTown]

Well imo if you are going to go CompE you might as well just do EE, at my college it is only two different courses and both of them count as EE courses. In other words when I graduate this spring I could literally chooses between EE and CompE because I have all the requirements for both. And given how close together they are you might as well get the EE degree, that way you can open yourself up to alot more opportunities other that just computers. At least thats what I did and it all paid out. I am very into computers and CPUs and such but my GPA wasn't high enough to work at some of the companies listed here (Intel, AMD etc..), but since I was an EE I was able to get a job completely unrelated to computers instead of being pigeonholed into one discipline.

 

[Gibson486]

As a computer engineer, you learn skills that have to do with computing (duh!!!). It, by no means, means you learn about computers. Let me explain.....

See....computers are made up components. As a computer engineer, you learn how to make these components from the ground up. How does all this tie into engineering? All these things you learn have some sort of mathmatical background (whether it be simple as binary logic or as complex as fourier transmorms). You can design how it does the computing (hardware) or you can design what will be computed (software). As it turns out, everything today runs on a "computer". Whether it is an embedded system or a full fledged OS, it involves computation for the system to run.

How does it differ from Electrical Engineering? The truth is... it generally does not. CE is a concentration of a field that is in EE. Infact, in some schools, you cannot get a seperate CE or EE degree, you have to get them together. The problem with CE is that its a concentration of EE. Once you get out of that concentration, it becomes very hard. For instance, it would be very difficult for a CE to be in the power systems industry and some CE are so concentrated on the concentration that they can not do simple EE things such as simple analog circuits. This is why some school seperate the majors.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer
If you want to work at Intel or AMD, you're gonna want to go with materials science/engineering, chemical engineering, or electrical engineering. Computer engineering might also get you there, but it'll be on a smaller road.

CS isn't what you think it is. It's twisted logic crap, and I regret taking it as a minor in undergrad.


I'm an EE/PhD. From my experience as an intern at Intel and from my day-long interview with Intel PTD, I'm going to suggest that you don't want to work for Intel. They treat you like crap and tell you that it's the "Intel environment".

Did you get that? They've actually given a name to treating their employees like crap. You know that's gotta be a bad sign...



No one knows what *fill in the blank* engineering is when they apply to college.

Good luck!

Oh I don't know, I fairly enjoyed my tenure at Intel. Interesting work, good facilities, great pay and benefits (even for interns, huzzah for profit sharing). I also liked that I was given a fair amount of responsibility. Nothing like calling up a company to place orders in the name of Intel for your own research.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
Well imo if you are going to go CompE you might as well just do EE, at my college it is only two different courses and both of them count as EE courses. In other words when I graduate this spring I could literally chooses between EE and CompE because I have all the requirements for both. And given how close together they are you might as well get the EE degree, that way you can open yourself up to alot more opportunities other that just computers. At least thats what I did and it all paid out. I am very into computers and CPUs and such but my GPA wasn't high enough to work at some of the companies listed here (Intel, AMD etc..), but since I was an EE I was able to get a job completely unrelated to computers instead of being pigeonholed into one discipline.

I am a CompE and have had internships at the most random places you can think of as well as big ones like Intel. If you feel like EE opened up more doors, it didn't. Everyone wants to do something different so saying the degree will limit you is likely bad advice since CompE and EE lead to tons of the same jobs as well as many different ones. You can't just throw down blanket statements like "be EE instead" because that makes no sense all things considered. The embedded market is the fastest growing market right now and guess who is primarily hired for that? Computer Engineers.

The bottom line is you are confusing being an intelligent guy with what your degree can get you. Regardless of what degree you picked when you graduated you probably would have been successful. That is the takeaway from this for the OP. Go to school, learn things, and then go to interviews and convince people you know what you are talking about and good things will happen. The degree hasn't influenced many of my decisions or made people shy away from me. If I want a door opened, I knock.