WHAT IS GPU?
A graphics processing unit is a specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device.
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS:
The manufacturing firm has a design department that comes up with the final layouts, but the actual manufacturing is contracted out to other companies, with the bare boards arriving in bulk, ready for all the graphical goodness to be attached to them. Before anything is stuck onto them, however, each bare PCB is labelled and set into a frame that will hold either a pair of boards for longer PCBs or up to four of them for smaller designs.
The first part of the actual process is the screen printing of the solder. This thick goo is printed onto the myriad contact points of each bare PCB for the subsequent components to be attached to. The pick and place machines are the precision workhorses of the process; their nimble fingers position the tiniest of components onto each board in a dizzying, hypnotic high-speed dance across the PCB. These machines are fed by reels of tape with all the individual components attached to them. A team of engineers at the start of each production line assemble the individual reels to whatever specifications are needed for that particular line.
After all the smallest components are stuck to the board, the PCB then goes through a process called reflow soldering, which finally bakes the unit to ensure they’re all attached firmly. Once the boards have cooled they are then passed through an automatic optical inspection (AOI) machine to 100% guarantee that each minuscule component is in the correct position. If they pass, the PCBs are then flipped over so they can go through the same process again for the other side of the board.
This is when the magical moment where the actual GPU gets dropped in happens; the moment when it stops just being a plain ol’ bit of printed circuit board with a few resistors and memory chips on it and becomes a fully-fledged graphics processing monster.
But the process is still not over. The larger components now need to be attached – the capacitors, power connections and video ports – and this is also where human beings need to get involved.
They are all then visually inspected before each board is put through a PCB cleaning machine which uses a PH neutral cleaning agent to ensure they’re 100% clear of any solder flux residue. This used to be one of the nastiest parts of the process, requiring seriously toxic chemicals to clean the boards effectively, but environmental concerns are starting to filter into such manufacturing. Finally, the GPU cooler can be attached and the final cards roll off the production line… straight into testing.
Every single graphics card that comes off goes through a rigorous GPU testing process that lasts a full half-hour. It even uses some of the same testing software, such as the tessellation-heavy Heaven 4.0 test. Whether it’s at the automatic optical inspection, visual inspection or GPU testing stages, if a card fails for any reason, it is then sent straight into troubleshooting where the error is located. From here each failed card will be repaired and dropped straight back into the production line. There’s little wastage and certainly no sad-looking bins of b0rked graphics cards cluttering up the facility.
Finally, the cards are packed up with their cables, adapters and (probably never-used) driver CDs before shipping out to the wider world to find their way into your gaming rig.
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The information is provided by Tecquisition for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal advice. If you have any feedback, comments, requests for technical support or other inquiries, please mail us by tecqusition@gmail.com.
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