Geography of a GPU.

The GPU is not an essential part to a computer. It can be added to improve visual performance and to enhance rendering speeds. The GPU is essential a different intended purpose CPU. GPU's are expensive, for a good one at least. If you were to build your own PC, a rule of thumb in to spend one third of your budget on the GPU. GPU's can be used for improving visual performance by achieving higher FPS in games, or for quick rendering of videos for example.

Some main producers of GPU's are EVGA, who make the Nvidia GPU's and Radeon who make AMD GPU's. AMD tends to be cheaper in general. For example, their new flagship RX 480 costs around the 250 euro range while the new flagship EVGA 1080 cost an impressive 600 and up to buy. EVGA does have a good selling point, most a of their new cards come VR ready, and even some f their old ones do too.

The GPU starts off with a new design being thought of. This is called the PRS. This is a very costly process and will involve a lot of people. These would be engineers, designers and coders. They then begin planning where the "building blocks" will go on the chip of the GPU. This is done with code. The aim of this is to reduce delay time between signals. They test the code and it goes through a process called synthesis, which will compile the code. One it's done. it will give instructions to each transistor on the chip. This is called a netlist. The chip is then tested is then tested. If the computer finds anything wrong with the chip, the team backtracks to find the problem and then fix it. The design of the physical board and chip-set is now considered. This is almost all automatic. The way the chip is made is by taking a picture of each layer of the transistors, then making the chip using these layers. The next step is to make the chip, and this uses a thing called photo-lithography. This is when all the connections on the chip are made. First, special material called photo resist is applied to the wafer. Then UV light is directed at it with a template covering it. The material that the template covered allows the material to stay, Then the wafer is chemically altered, while the material that stays does not allow the chemicals to touch  the wafer. This done is along with an oxide layer. The wafer is then hit with phosphorus ions mixed with silicone to allow energy transfer. Around this phosphorus, silicon dioxide is used to insulate it. Then, a thin layer of silicone dioxide is placed on top of the phosphorus. This will help it not to short out. Trenches are then drilled and copper is placed inside of them. Excess copper is then taken away. Many layers of copper is usually necessary, for example, one to provide power, another to connect one component to another, etc. The chips are then placed onto a PCB, and a cooler is placed onto it. 

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Geography of a Power Supply.

The power supply is the most important thing in a PC. Without a supply, all you have is a box of plastic and metal. Old power supplies were large, using bulky transformers and massive capacitors. They converted 120V to 5V like we still do today, but much less efficient. Now, power supplies are small and efficient with only one transformer doing the step-down from 220V to the specified amount.

Some of the main companies that produce power supplies are Corsair and EVGA. Both produce power supplies that are mostly of the same standard. Corsair produces a 1500i power supply, meaning, it can supply 1500 watts of continuous power. This is also fully modular which means that you can choose the cable that you want to plug into the supply. 

A power supply is made in much the same way a motherboard is, just with a big metal case around it. The case is usually made of aluminium. An aluminium sheet is cut out and the appropriate holes are cut out, such as a fan hole, a hole for the cable for the PSU itself, etc. The sheet is then folded to make a box. The board of the PSU is made by stacking two pieces of carbon-fibre over very thin copper wires. The capacitors and transformer has to be soldered on to the board by drilling a hole though it. After all the bigger components are soldered onto the board, the board is placed into the aluminium casing. It's secured with screws. 

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Geography of a Hard Drive.

Hard drives are found in almost every computer / laptop now-a-days. Hard drives are a way of storing data, so if we didn't have a hard-drive, we probably wouldn't be able to have computers without paying big bucks for them. I say this because there are now SSD's, but they tend to be much more pricey than the standard hard-drive.

Two main manufacturers of hard-drives are Western-Digital and Seagate. They are both similar and you can't really change how a hard-drive word like you can with a motherboard. Some variables can include however, disk speed, disk storage size, and physical size. WD have different hard-drives such as the WD Blue, the WD Black and, the WD Green.

It takes some time to make one hard-drive. Firstly, the materials are collected. The materials used are, silicone, platinum, aluminium and ruthenium. Some of these materials are mined in South Africa in the Bushveld Complex. From these materials, we will eventually make a functioning hard drive.

The aluminium is firstly cast in to a large blank. The blank ingot is long and cylindrical is size, and it can weigh up to 27 tonnes. It gets heat treated, hot rolled and cold-rolled, to the required size, just enough to keep the disk stable at high speeds. These are produced to a medium finish, which isn't nearly good enough. The blanks are then ground to a high finish using fine stones that are made of PVA. A coating made of nickel and phosphorus. Then the disk with the coating is sanded down to 0.0000001mm. This is 450 times smaller than what is required. This will be upped to 0.0000004mm. It is then cleaned to get rid of any contamination. They use a cloth, but they only press is gently against the disk, as the layer of NiP is so thin. An under-layer of magnetic material is then applied, using materials such as cobalt, iron and nickel. This help separate the disks, using helium, and ruthenium. Then, a lot of odd elements and materials are added to the disk. A diamond like protective overcoat is applied to the disk, only 2nm thick. It's applied with an ion beam. Lubrication is added and the final stage of testing begins. The disks are then stacked, and the hard drive is ready to use.

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Geography of a Motherboard.

The motherboard is another essential part of a computer. Without this part, the CPU or the RAM would have nowhere to go. The motherboard hols most of the components and also acts as a chipset for automatic cooling, presuming you have fans anyway. Like the CPU, it's in basically everything electronic. The motherboard so,is very important, overall.

Two of the main motherboard producers for PCs are ASUS and Gigabyte. These two companies offer different products at somewhat different price points. Gigabyte tend to be the cheaper one, offering the basics with some added features. ASUS boards can be very expensive. But with this, you get L.E.D boards, more fan headers, more supportable RAM, more GPU slots etc.

Like the CPU's, motherboards use much of one material, in this case it's fibreglass. This provides good insulation, and copper, which are the wires for the board. The copper sheets are placed on to the fibreglass and they become stuck in place in the heating press. This results in a 1.6mm thick board. The copper sheets cover the whole of the fibreglass, which won't do because the current won't go to the needed destination. Excess copper is removed to allow single wires to be put in place. This is done multiple times as there are multiple layers on a single board. Holes are then drilled. Some will become mounting holes for the PC case. Something to do with copper and tin plating happens ant then the board is tested. The board is now ready for actual parts like capacitors to be soldered on. Larger things like the processor holder are soldered through the hole, which means wire are put through the board and soldered on with a big machine. Lastly, the board is put up for a stress test.

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CPU Geography.

How a CPU is made. And where it comes from.

CPU's, for a start, are one of the main components in your Computer / Laptop / Phone etc. Without these little chips, the world wouldn't be what it is today. Even washing machines need them. So, in essence, as we are, we couldn't cope with a world without and CPU's.

The two main producers of CPU's for desktop and laptop, are Intel and AMD. Then you have a company called ARM, which produce processors for phones and such. These companies have very different selling points. AMD were the first to make APU's, and Intel the first to make Hyper-Threading possible. Intel would be regarded and usually more expensive, and AMD the cheaper of the two.

Intel ran a campaign informing people on how their CPU's are made and how they get their materials. In a video that they released, they showed that some materials, such as silicone, is mined unfairly in Africa. With warlords making people work for small, if any pay. The only people who profit off of this, are the warlords. Intel set up this campaign to try and stop it.

Anyways, the CPU is made from mainly silicone. The silicone it melted and then a seed / catalyst, is placed into the still molten liquid. This allows the silicone to form a ingot, of typically 6" diameter, around the seed. To be used properly, the ingot must be spotless. So they clean it. The wafers are then cut from the ingot, 1mm-2mm wide. Then they are checked for any surface defects. The wafer is then etched in a long process, using some harmful materials.  The same is done to make the transistor, but on a more accurate level. The wafers are then cut into individual chips and placed into the CPU in your computer.



This is how your CPU is made, and tune in next time for;
                        The Geography of a Motherboard.

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Hello, my name's Jack and I will be studying and talking about the geography of your everyday computer. This is, in essence, finding how all the parts are made.