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I want to manufacture Graphics Cards would nanoelectronics be best or something else?

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Gizmo j

Gizmo j

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Can someone tell me if a gpu/graphics card is a integrated circuit or not?

And is nanoelectronics the best thing to study?
 
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NVIDIA designs the GPU, but leaves actual production to the big fab plants out there. They have to contract the production of each new GPU.

If I recall correctly, these fabs are usually left over from processor manufacturers that have already moved onto a smaller process for their CPUs, so the older production line / equipment at the factory gets a second life making GPUs.
 
I can't answer your question at all, but I can tell you where to start. Look at the careers webpages for AMD and Nvidia. They will have bios of people in various engineering groups, plus probably videos of people talking about what they do. Also looking for their intern or college recruiting pages, those will have more information for early career jobs and potentially webinars where you can ask questions. Finally, reach out to random engineers on LinkedIn. Many will probably ignore you, but a few will definitely respond.

You don't even necessarily need to do computer or electrical engineering. There are also software developers and probably a good number of people with math degrees. One thing you should learn early is if you can get in with a BS/MS degree or if a PhD is required.
 
tynopik said:
learn chinese and then sneak into a foxconn factory town, they can probably find a spot for you on the assembly line (assuming you have good manual dexterity)
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Heh, yeah. I think that the OP wants to design video cards, not manufacture them!

Of course, Nvidia and AMD only hire the best of the best. Expect to spend the first five years of your EE career engineering Internet connected toasters until you have enough experience to work for them.
 
If you are interested in the architecture side of GPUs do CE. Not interested in the rest of the computer is really too bad though since CE isn't going to be GPUs aside from maybe a class or too it'll be CPU based. In my experience all BS CEs start in the verification side of things and then maybe get to the architecture side after some years. Not sure how AMD/Nvidia do it.

If you want to do the silicon implementation do EE. I've never interviewed a BS CE that had enough background to do even an entry level physical design job. I'm sure there are exceptions by school but that's my experience. I can't imagine working on a GPU being markedly different than a CPU, especially entry level.

If you are interested in higher level software do CS, if you are interested in drivers do CE.

Also be careful about being so narrowly focused (unless you want to go on to get a PhD in which case such a focused drive might serve you well). Not to date myself too much but I went in to school with the intent of working on the next Intel Pentium. They weren't hiring when I was looking so I went elsewhere, later in my career I did get an offer from Intel but ended up not taking it for a variety of reasons, Freshman me would have jumped at it but with a few years experience it was obvious how weird my narrow obsession was. But hey at least it drove me to get the degree.
 
If your thread title is correct you certainly are not going to need any degrees at all, so rejoice! the people that manufacture them are mostly low wage warehouse workers in china/taiwan. I would get in contact with Asus or Foxconn and see what their requirements are for starting position on the assembly line. You will likely need to learn Chinese though.
 
Like others have mentioned, you need to be more specific on what you truly want to do.

If you want to actually design the GPU chips and architecture, then an engineering background will be the right choice.

If all you want to do is manufacture the cards, then you just work for foxconn or other electronics manufacturing company and work on their production line. Standing for 8-12 hours a day running machines over and over.
 
If you want to be in semiconductor (chip) manufacturing, you'll want an electrical engineering, materials, physics, or even a chemical engineering degree. You'll work for TSMC or Samsung.

If you want to design those chips, you'll probably want to be in computer engineering or electrical engineering.

If you want to be in packaging (integration of chips into a package or interposer) or board design, I'd go with electrical or mechanical.

If you seriously want to be an assembler of video cards, you'll probably need to be a robot because Foxconn is sick of you people jumping off the buildings, and they'd prefer to let the robots take care of this stuff.
 
from how you asked your question, one can tell you that you do not know anything about EE or CE. That's pretty normal.

Most people coming from purely theoretical secondary schooling don't really know what they are studying until the second year.

Just don't create expectations for yourself. It's very unlikely that you'll end up doing GPUs. The good news is that studying for the other things is not hugely different, you're still doing digital circuits.

As you go along you'll see that your current motivations will seem naive.

If you're interested in fabrication of silicon devices (not just GPUs, limiting yourself doesn't make sense), that's definitely a physics-heavy EE curriculum or physics engineering.

Otherwise, go for a digital circuits-focused CE or EE degree.

The deal-breaker is this question anyway: do you like maths and physics?

At worst you can switch to another CE or EE engineering track after the first or second year without having to catch up with too many courses anyway.
 
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Electrical engineering. I had a hardware design goal when I went to undergrad and did CompE, which had all the appropriate coursework and I was 2 courses from being able to graduate with an EE degree (analog circuit related only). But I learned that at most schools CompE was much more CS intensive. As a consequence, my resume was overlooked by every big company before ever being looked at by a person because the relevant jobs all required an EE degree. I had no problem with the smaller companies who sent actual engineers to job fairs who learned easily that I was qualified by talking to me.
 
interchange said:
Electrical engineering. I had a hardware design goal when I went to undergrad and did CompE, which had all the appropriate coursework and I was 2 courses from being able to graduate with an EE degree (analog circuit related only). But I learned that at most schools CompE was much more CS intensive. As a consequence, my resume was overlooked by every big company before ever being looked at by a person because the relevant jobs all required an EE degree. I had no problem with the smaller companies who sent actual engineers to job fairs who learned easily that I was qualified by talking to me.
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That's too bad. I tend to ignore the degree and focus on the internships and coursework listed. So far I'm 0 for 5 on CEs passing the phone screen but that's also nearly where I'm at for undergrads period, a masters goes a long way to rounding a candidate out and usually comes with much better intern experience.
 
Id probably start with electronics engineering. You'll want to know how the pixies interact. But probably will want computer science/engineering too. If you want to get right inro actually making dies id probably start with simpler stuff like 555 timer ICs and microconrollers to understand the process.
 
Give up your dreams and hopes Jen Huseng will never hire you

7xyjoc40018x.jpg
 
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Gizmo j said:
I'm not that interested with the rest of the computer except the graphic card so I was wondering is it necessary to absorb everything in computer engineering or if I should go for something else such as electrical or electronic engineering.

Also would "Engineering Technology" be better?
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I'd say EE with a minor in CS and maybe physics (and obviously take the highest math courses possible) would open the world to you, if you're competent enough for it. You'd want at least a master's degree, maybe a PhD at some point. GPU design (any design, really) isn't a one-person job. You'll likely be on a team responsible for one specific area (architecture, software, fab, board layout, testing) rather than the whole product. There's also the mechanical side (packaging, thermal design), or manufacturing.

Stay away from engineering technology if you want to do any real, complex design work. I got a BS in EET (4-year degree with two co-ops) and while I'm in a design/R&D position, I'm more on the development and verification side of things. I've designed boards from schematics to finished PCBs, and had a heavy hand in kW-scale system design, but not having the full math background is somewhat of a disadvantage. If you go to a good school, you learn nearly all the same things as a regular EE, but the classes are watered down with algebraic (calc 1/2-level in the higher courses) equations. Sometimes I wish I had gone with a real EE degree, but I love being more hands-on and in the lab. Luckily in my position, I have a good mix of design and hands-on work, and I've learned a lot on the job.

Either way, you really have to push yourself.
 
How about you finish your highs chool focusing on sciences first? Then try to get into EE. You know, before you try to 3d print a computer.
 
BD231 said:
Give up your dreams and hopes Jen Huseng will never hire you

7xyjoc40018x.jpg
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Take the shopping out of the image, and I can get behind that. Be a blacksmith instead. You can shoe horses, and make baubles for etsy. Doesn't pay quite as much as a high level EE, but it's good money. and you can be out in the air swinging a hammer at glowing fire. It doesn't get much better that that.
 
lxskllr said:
Take the shopping out of the image, and I can get behind that. Be a blacksmith instead. You can shoe horses, and make baubles for etsy. Doesn't pay quite as much as a high level EE, but it's good money. and you can be out in the air swinging a hammer at glowing fire. It doesn't get much better that that.
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As a bonus, you could also get a guest spot in that knife making reality show on the History channel!
 
If you want to actually be involved in the manufacturing and assembly operations of the cards I hate to break it to you but that is all done overseas.
 
Actually starting a PCB fab would probably be somewhat realistic. But yeah most of them are in China. The initial capital cost would be huge though.
 
Can someone tell me if a gpu/graphics card is a integrated circuit or not?

And is nanoelectronics the best thing to study?
 
The GPU chip itself is an integrated circuit, though lot of the times when people talk about a GPU they are talking about the whole card. The card is a PCB with other components such as ram, power management, physical connectors and glue logic etc for the GPU to work.
 
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