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  • This factory in Taiwan makes 400,000 computer motherboards a month.

  • And amazingly, a lot of the work is still done by hand.

  • Gigabyte's Nan Ping factory, about 45 minutes west of Taipei, is the only motherboard factory left in Taiwan.

  • 1,200 employees work here installing, assembling, checking, and packaging motherboards before they're sent out to stores.

  • And it all begins here on the 7th floor with these machines that print solder paste onto the base circuit board.

  • The board then passes through this series of robots that puts components in place.

  • Tiny resistors and capacitors, each about the size of a grain of rice, are fed from these reels.

  • And factory workers need to keep a constant eye to ensure they don't run out.

  • If that happens, the production line would stop.

  • Next is a run through in oven that melts the solder so the components become attached to the board.

  • This machine behind me is doing optical checking of the boards.

  • It takes photographs and compares those against a database to make sure that every component is where it should be.

  • Gigabyte has 10 of these production lines and they all end with a final check by eye before the board is off to the 5th floor.

  • And on the fifth floor, boards begin with another robot, but robots can only do so much.

  • This is where a lot of the manual work begins.

  • On this line behind me, circuit boards are continuously moving along, and these people are checking the boards and attaching individual components.

  • While tiny components can be automatically placed, larger components like some capacitors, memory sockets, and audio connectors are done by hand.

  • Each operator at each workstation is responsible for a number of components, and they need to work fast to keep the line going.

  • All the while, a robot scoots around the floor delivering components so they don't run out.

  • At the end of the line, there's another soldering process and series of checks before the board goes down again, this time to the second floor.

  • And it's here where the packaging process begins.

  • Machines punch out boxes and operators add accessories like cables and put the boards in bags to prevent damage.

  • The driver disc and a manual added, and then the boards are put into the boxes.

  • Throughout the process everything is scanned to ensure the correct components are going with the correct motherboards

  • And at the end of this line, as all of the components are put into boxes, this is what we end up with.

  • Piles of motherboards ready to ship out.

  • The Nan Ping factory accounts for about a quarter of Gigabyte's motherboard production.

  • And on this line and others in this factory and elsewhere, boxes of motherboards are continually produced, eventually ending up in PCs around the world.

  • And that's how a motherboard is made.

This factory in Taiwan makes 400,000 computer motherboards a month.

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