I want to manufacture graphics cards, is nanoelectronics the best thing to study?

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

@SOFTengCOMPelec

I read that GPUs and other computer parts were in the nanometer scale so I thought nanoelectronics were important.

Nano-####, is just one of the many subject areas, which graphics cards, their graphics processors and hence the integrated circuits, is part of.
But there is also much electronic engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering, science, mathematics, economics, material-science, chemistry, physics, optics (ray-tracing algorithms), manufacturing, quality-control, Software/firmware, PCB designers, testers, project managers, etc etc.

Nanoelectronics, is just a small/tiny (excuse the puns) part of integrated circuit design and manufacture. If it is even relevant yet, as per my previous post.

Electronic Engineering (and similar) is mainly what you really want.
Or computer engineering/software, if you feel more like doing the software/firmware side of things.

Electronics/Computing is about Electronics/Computing, even though there is a bit of Mathematics/Science/Mechanics/Chemistry/Physics/Nanotechnology/Manufacturing/Economics/Material-Science and perhaps thousands of other subjects, rolled into Electronics/Computing.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

It might help, if you decide very roughly, where in the manufacture and design of graphics cards and their graphic processors. You want to work in.

E.g. The electronics (PCB), the design of the GPU, software/firmware, testing, integrated circuit (design), at the production plant, management, quality control, team leader etc etc.

 

[Red Squirrel]

If you want a fun project try to reproduce a modern GPU using discrete through hole transistors, on a bread board.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

If you want a fun project try to reproduce a modern GPU using discrete through hole transistors, on a bread board.

Just design a discrete transistor version of the 6845 or better still, the 6847. VDU (Video Display Unit), is like an ancient version of a graphics card.
Then, at least it will be thousands of transistors, rather than billions, or even tens of billions of transistors, that you need.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_6845

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_6847

http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com...47 MOS Video Display Generator (Motorola).pdf

 

[snoopy7548]

If you want a fun project try to reproduce a modern GPU using discrete through hole transistors, on a bread board.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

View attachment 710

You just need a few thousand or so, of rooms like these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z71h9XZbAWY

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

Accidental - post deleted (I blame the new forum layout)

 

[snoopy7548]

You just need a few thousand or so, of rooms like these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z71h9XZbAWY

That guy is insanely talented. He should build one that plays DooM.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

That guy is insanely talented. He should build one that plays DooM.

Yes, he is. It would be very nice and educational, to visit it and see and talk to the guy. But I bet that is not possible.

I'm impressed/surprised, it is powerful enough (8 KHz, doesn't sound like much cpu speed/power), to even play Tetris, like he shows, on the video.

It even has some kind of graphics/video card (capabilities), shown, later in the video.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I remember seeing that before that is pretty impressive!

 

[Red Squirrel]

View attachment 710

Might have to bump the clock down a bit, capacitance is going to be an issue.

 

[BUTCH1]

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

And is nanoelectronics the best thing to study?

LOL, an "integrated circuit" is used to describe the basic one's like OP-amp's or 555 timers or gates, today's GPU's have billions of transistors and take dedicated teams of engineers years to develop and bring to market. Try something else..

 

[skull]

Yes, he is. It would be very nice and educational, to visit it and see and talk to the guy. But I bet that is not possible.

I'm impressed/surprised, it is powerful enough (8 KHz, doesn't sound like much cpu speed/power), to even play Tetris, like he shows, on the video.

It even has some kind of graphics/video card (capabilities), shown, later in the video.

The description says its on display at cambridge you can go and play tetris on it.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

The description says its on display at cambridge you can go and play tetris on it.

Great. That is very useful to know, many thanks!
In that case, I hope/will to go and see it.
I just hope I don't lose to the Tetris game, too badly!

It is not every day, that you play Tetris, on a 8,000 Hz (8KHz, rather than 4 GHz, or even 4 MHz on an ancient home computer), hand built out of individual transistors, cpu/computer.

 

[mxnerd]

You have to learn basic electronics and electric circuit before you can talk about anything else.

Or if you are as smart as Steve Jobs and have some serious money, you can hire some engineers to manufacture GPU for you.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Graphics cards? Meh. You can make them in your bathtub. There are guides on YouTube.

 

[Gizmo j]

I just called nvidia headquarters and I asked them was nanoelectronics a good thing to study to work in the production of gpus and the man said "ABSOLUTLEY! Nanoelectronics is in VERY high demand at this company." He also said that electrical engineering is a better major then computer engineering.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

I just called nvidia headquarters and I asked them was nanoelectronics a good thing to study to work in the production of gpus and the man said "ABSOLUTLEY! Nanoelectronics is in VERY high demand at this company." He also said that electrical engineering is a better major then computer engineering.

Here are the current job vacancies at Nvidia:
https://nvidia.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/NVIDIAExternalCareerSite

Summary:
A vast number of those jobs, are software this, and software that.
So, it would seem, that computer related skills, might be the easiest/quickest, most viable way of getting a job there, apparently.
There is the odd electronic engineering related roles, as well, occasionally.

1185 Results

• • DFT Engineer
• Taiwan, Hsinchu, More... | JR1918762 | Posted Today
• • Senior System Software Engineer
• India - Bangalore | JR1919195 | Posted Yesterday
• • Senior System Software Engineer
• India - Bangalore | JR1919479 | Posted Yesterday
• • Senior System Software Engineer
• India, Pune | JR1919833 | Posted Yesterday
• • Senior Verification Engineer - PCIE
• India - Bangalore | JR1919826 | Posted Yesterday
• • Senior ASIC Design Engineer
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1919923 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • Senior ASIC Design Engineer (Memory Controllers)
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1919865 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • Senior Solutions Architect - Deep Learning
• Israel, Tel Aviv | JR1919888 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • Principal Distributed Machine Learning Architect - AI Platform
• US, CA, Santa Clara, More... | JR1919882 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • Senior Distributed Systems Engineer - AI Platform
• US, CA, Santa Clara, More... | JR1919873 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • Senior Full-Stack Engineer - AI Platform
• US, CA, Santa Clara, More... | JR1919872 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • Senior Data Engineer - AI Platform
• US, CA, Santa Clara, More... | JR1919871 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • Senior Distributed Machine Learning Architect - AI Platform
• US, CA, Santa Clara, More... | JR1919883 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • Automotive System Software Engineer in Wolfsburg
• Germany, Munich | JR1910381 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • Developer Technology Engineer – Autonomous Driving
• Germany, Berlin | JR1915614 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • NVIDIA GPU Cloud Infrastructure – Monitoring Engineer
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1917314 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Security Architect, NVIDIA GPU Cloud
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1917234 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Senior Software Engineer, Cloud Automation
• US, TX, Austin, More... | JR1916979 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • Senior Software Engineer - Application Streaming Cloud Platform
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1901877 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Sr. Automotive Systems Software Engineer
• US, CA, Santa Clara, More... | JR1913208 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Robotics Software Engineering Manager
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1919913 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Solution Architect-Finance
• China, Beijing | JR1919616 | Posted 2 Days Ago
• • Senior Circuit Designer
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1919790 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Developer Relations Manager Industrial
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1919879 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Brazil Channel Marketing Manager, Consumer Business
• Brazil, Sao Paulo | JR1919353 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Demand Planning Analyst
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1919379 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Automotive Hardware Application Engineer
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1919426 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Developer Relations Manager - Hyperscale
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1912213 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Developer Relations Manager, Cloud Service Provider
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1915783 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Autosar Software Engineer
• Germany, Munich | JR1915778 | Posted 3 Days Ago
• • Senior Software Engineer for Autonomous Vehicles
• US, NJ, Holmdel | JR1917066 | Posted 4 Days Ago
• • SW Program Manager NPI (New Product Introduction)
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1919208 | Posted 4 Days Ago
• • Converged Infrastructure Reliability Engineer
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1919671 | Posted 4 Days Ago
• • Graphics Software Engineer
• US, WA, Redmond | JR1919910 | Posted 4 Days Ago
• • Senior Systems Developer- Cloud Networking / Open Source
• Poland, Warsaw | JR1916876 | Posted 4 Days Ago
• • Senior Design Efficiency Engineer
• US, CA, Santa Clara | JR1919821 | Posted 4 Days Ago

But, for some mysterious reason, I don't seem to see many (well any, actually), mentioning "Nanoelectronics".

EDIT:
Be careful. Because a graphics card is very much a piece of complicated electronics. Nvidia (and similar), may want/require some kind of electronics knowledge/experience and/or electronics engineering qualifications.
I.e. Just learning software/computer engineering, may not be enough.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

This older article, seems to indicate, that Nanoelectronics, is about Carbon nanotubes and stuff, not conventional silicon devices, as found in graphics cards.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/406397/the-future-of-nanoelectronics/

Anyway, challenge for you.
Find me a single job, anywhere on the internet, or just anywhere, with "Nanoelectronics" in the title of the job (excluding all university/academic jobs) ?

 

[whm1974]

This older article, seems to indicate, that Nanoelectronics, is about Carbon nanotubes and stuff, not conventional silicon devices, as found in graphics cards.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/406397/the-future-of-nanoelectronics/

Anyway, challenge for you.
Find me a single job, anywhere on the internet, or just anywhere, with "Nanoelectronics" in the title of the job (excluding all university/academic jobs) ?

And good luck!

 

[whm1974]

Speaking of NanoTubes, has anyone even came close to finding ways to mass produce those things at a reasonable cost? What about suitable uses for them?

Last I read, it was an area of research of making them into memory, storage, and CPUs, but that was a long time ago.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

Speaking of NanoTubes, has anyone even came close to finding ways to mass produce those things at a reasonable cost? What about suitable uses for them?

Last I read, it was an area of research of making them into memory, storage, and CPUs, but that was a long time ago.

I have a rough idea.
I think, that in theory, Carbon nano-tubes (and similar), could make very good, tiny features, integrated circuits, in at least some respects.
But there are at least two major hurdles.

One, we don't know how to reliably mass produce, a huge number of these devices (i.e. with billions of switching transistors/Fets), and do it quickly and cheaply enough, to viably compete with modern day silicon chips.
Secondly, we don't know enough about the characteristics of such devices, to quickly/easily/economically design massive cpus/memories and things with them.

Solving these technical/manufacturing/design problems, could/would need huge mega $'s and take many years or even decades.

Look at how long and expensive/difficult 10nm is proving for Intel. Who use to be leading the race to ever smaller feature sized cpus.
Then think how many times harder the problems/costs/time-involved would be, if Carbon nano-tubes and stuff, were involved.

 

[whm1974]

Come to think of it I did read something about researchers in S.Korea doping silicon wafers with Carbon nanotubes to reach 3nm.

While I read that silicon can go down to 5nm, I'm thinking that due to practical issues Fabs may end up being stuck at 7nm process.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

Come to think of it I did read something about researchers in S.Korea doping silicon wafers with Carbon nanotubes to reach 3nm.

While I read that silicon can go down to 5nm, I'm thinking that due to practical issues Fabs may end up being stuck at 7nm process.

Over the years, I find you often read about researchers/labs somewhere. That have a working transistor/process at some crazy specification, like it runs at 5 THz or is only 0.5nm feature size, etc.
Only, to never, ever hear about such technologies again.

So, until actual product seems to be available, I remain skeptical about such new technologies.

For example:
We use to hear that Gallium, was going to replace silicon, a while back.
With the odd exception here and there. Silicon remains the main integrated circuit material of choice.

 

[whm1974]

Over the years, I find you often read about researchers/labs somewhere. That have a working transistor/process at some crazy specification, like it runs at 5 THz or is only 0.5nm feature size, etc.
Only, to never, ever hear about such technologies again.

So, until actual product seems to be available, I remain skeptical about such new technologies.

For example:
We use to hear that Gallium, was going to replace silicon, a while back.
With the odd exception here and there. Silicon remains the main integrated circuit material of choice.

Isn't Gallium far less common then Silicon anyway?

Remember the Memristor?
https://electronics360.globalspec.com/article/6389/despite-hp-s-delays-memristors-are-now-available
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor