I am confused, What does a Computer Engineer do?

[Newblesse Obblige]

I love computer hardware and I have been thinking to pursue it as a career, not only as a hobby or just an enthusiast. But I am confused that some people say that Computer Engineer is more on software.  If Computer Engineer is just like Computer Science or I.T, then what do you called these who study computer hardware?

[piemadd]

18 minutes ago, 5GigaaHertz said:

I love computer hardware and I have been thinking to pursue it as a career, not only as a hobby or just an enthusiast. But I am confused that some people say that Computer Engineer is more on software.  If Computer Engineer is just like Computer Science or I.T, then what do you called these who study computer hardware?

Electrical engineers generally design the hardware. Computer engineers write the firmware that interacts between the hardware and your OS kernel.

[dalekphalm]

22 minutes ago, 5GigaaHertz said:

I love computer hardware and I have been thinking to pursue it as a career, not only as a hobby or just an enthusiast. But I am confused that some people say that Computer Engineer is more on software.  If Computer Engineer is just like Computer Science or I.T, then what do you called these who study computer hardware?

When you say that you "love computer hardware" and want to pursue it as a career, what do you actually want to do?

 

Please describe the kind of job and tasks you actually want to have.

 

A computer engineer is heavily programming based - you do learn electrical theory and electronics, but you also learn a LOT of programming.

 

If you want to develop and design new computer hardware (eg: CPU's, GPU's, etc), most of these people are electrical engineers - you can be a computer engineer, but you'll have to heavily specialize your education and further jobs.

 

Most computer engineers end up doing driver coding, firmware coding, OS/kernel coding, etc. Many of them just become computer programmers.

[Newblesse Obblige]

1 minute ago, dalekphalm said:

When you say that you "love computer hardware" and want to pursue it as a career, what do you actually want to do?

 

Please describe the kind of job and tasks you actually want to have.

I like/want to tinker, design or make computer hardware. It would include modding or manufacturing like a motherboard(faily close to laptops), case, or anything that involves hardware. Sort of similar to what Not From Concentrate does(the creator of the S4 Mini).

Maybe I picked a wrong job though

[Godlygamer23]

26 minutes ago, pierom_qwerty said:

Electrical engineers generally design the hardware. Computer engineers write the firmware that interacts between the hardware and your OS kernel.

Based on what I've been reading, computer engineers also design a lot of the components involved in computers. Probably depends on the actual job that one is applying for.

https://www.livescience.com/48326-computer-engineering.html

[Newblesse Obblige]

3 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Based on what I've been reading, computer engineers also design a lot of the components involved in computers. Probably depends on the actual job that one is applying for.

https://www.livescience.com/48326-computer-engineering.html

But based on the replies on my past thread I posted. some replies says they only just do programming.

[Godlygamer23]

5 minutes ago, 5GigaaHertz said:

But based on the replies on my past thread I posted. some replies says they only just do programming.

I think that's completely wrong. Some might just do programming or software development, but that doesn't mean they all do, and branches exist where they actually do design components used in computers. 

 

An article also from Wikipedia:

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

[spartaman64]

27 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

When you say that you "love computer hardware" and want to pursue it as a career, what do you actually want to do?

 

Please describe the kind of job and tasks you actually want to have.

 

A computer engineer is heavily programming based - you do learn electrical theory and electronics, but you also learn a LOT of programming.

 

If you want to develop and design new computer hardware (eg: CPU's, GPU's, etc), most of these people are electrical engineers - you can be a computer engineer, but you'll have to heavily specialize your education and further jobs.

 

Most computer engineers end up doing driver coding, firmware coding, OS/kernel coding, etc. Many of them just become computer programmers.

i thought thats computer science and computer engineering works more on the hardware

[Newblesse Obblige]

1 minute ago, spartaman64 said:

i thought thats computer science and computer engineering works more on the hardware

same

[dalekphalm]

Just now, spartaman64 said:

i thought thats computer science and computer engineering works more on the hardware

Computer Science is often used as a catch-all (especially in school) for anything computer related, but typically is mostly computer programming.

 

Computer Hardware is often the same thing, but is more hardware focused (often involved in the firmware and software that controls said hardware). Some indeed may be involved with actually designing circuits and hardware, but I doubt most computer engineers actually do this. Not saying none do.

[bob345]

It depends, Computer engineers tend to work at much lower levels than most with a computer science degree will. This includes being heavily involved in the HDL (hardware description language) design of ASIC's and IC's as well as programming for FPGA's and CPLD's. You will absolutely learn allot of different programming languages, but the focus will be at a much lower level. There is also typically some amount of hardware stuff, but not to the same degree as you would get with a EE degree.

[FezBoy]

53 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

i thought thats computer science and computer engineering works more on the hardware

"computer science" is the study of things related to computers, so essentially academic research and programs at schools. Research generally tends to be less about making products, and more about studying methods and ideas, then publishing the research (which is often then used by engineers to make products)

[Newblesse Obblige]

14 minutes ago, bob345 said:

It depends, Computer engineers tend to work at much lower levels than most with a computer science degree will. This includes being heavily involved in the HDL (hardware description language) design of ASIC's and IC's as well as programming for FPGA's and CPLD's. You will absolutely learn allot of different programming languages, but the focus will be at a much lower level. There is also typically some amount of hardware stuff, but not to the same degree as you would get with a EE degree.

Do you think it is better for me to take Electronic engineering than Computer engineering?

[chrisrf]

look at the curriculum at your school you'll have about 2 years to make a hard decision between the two.

Edited August 7, 2020 by chrisrf

[dalekphalm]

42 minutes ago, 5GigaaHertz said:

Do you think it is better for me to take Electronic engineering than Computer engineering?

A lot of schools will have a common core between both of those with similar coursework especially early in the degree, with the later semesters diverging into the specialized fields.

 

You'll really want to look at schools you might be interested in, and then compare coursework between the two degrees, and see which courses are of more interest to you.

 

Ultimately it depends on what you want to do for your job. If you want to work for AMD or Intel? Probably do both, plus a Masters degree.

[bob345]

1 minute ago, ONOTech said:

I wish this wasn't true but it kinda is LOL. Most computer engineers end up with programming gigs, BUT you aren't at a disadvantage if you want a hardware position as a computer engineer. I say if you're just interested in computer hardware and not general electrical hardware, go CompE and specialize. There are lots of essential computer basics you'll miss as an EE ime

Ehh, in practice, as an EE you still need to be pretty knowledgeable on the software and logic side especially if you're getting more into system level design where you need to work closely with a software team to make sure ports are mapped properly. Most people i know that still have computer engineer as their title tend to do most of their work with either FPGA or ASIC HDL. Its Sort of hardware, but in a very different way than most people think.

[Newblesse Obblige]

I guess it is different in my country.