I find computer engineering so fun! (Here is why)

XDroidie626 · July 12, 2015

First let me start with this, this is all opinionated.

So I have played with computers since I was 14, but I never really dabbled into the engineering side until very recently, and I have to say, Its the better part to me.

I have a passion with electronics and how they work, most so with computers, I have a similar passion for engines and general mechanics, I love to figure out things work.

Anyway I recently decided to switch from computer science to engineering, in my own personal space have it with a very heavy focus on computers.

So I already know how most devices worked together, on what we shall call a basic technician level, and recently I decided to look at the engineering side of how they work, including weird architectures, and what I found out was rather fascinating

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_rate for example, something some of us just read as, well this processor runs at 3.3Ghz and this at 4.0Ghz not knowing what is happening in the background.

While I hate the software side in a sense, I didn't want to be a software engineer, coding is a little hate of mine, even though I have to learn it.

But the things that actually make the hardware tick before software is brilliant, at college we where never taught about DMA (Direct Memory Access) and is something we take for granted every day without noticing it.

I still have a lot to read but I look forward to it, and I hope it leads me into other parts, I have recently begun to learn about oscillator crystals as they work with CPUs.

I may even have a look at thermodynamics at a point, dummies is as likely as far as I will get, just to hope to better understand cooling.

So if you have a passion for hardware over software, consider engineering, and for those starting out, I will leave you with this http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/how-a-cpu-works/

It goes through the basics of what clocks do, what DMA is and other features.

Also if you have any books to recommend on the subject post them below!

Enjoy!!!!

o0Martin · July 12, 2015

I'm a little confused aha, are you just studying this at your own pass on your own time?

Or are you saying you switched your University Degree from Computer Science to a more Electronic Engineering based course? o:

I'm currently studying Computer Systems Engineering at University, which is essentially a good mix between Computer Science and Electronic/Electrical Engineering, like last year we had 3 modules related to Computer Science and programming (Robotics/Object Oriented Programming/Databse+Web), then the other 5 were all electronics (Microcomputer Eng/Digital Systems/Eng Maths/Eng Analysis/Computer systems)

I've always enjoyed the mix, and this course let me focus more on the engineering side than the computer science side so it was perfect for me

Just a couple years left, a year in industry and maybe a masters and I'll be done aha

GoodBytes · July 12, 2015

I have some bad news. EVERYTHING in Computer engineering is coding.

If you work in developing a circuit board, integrated circuit, processor, all coding. Code that is converted into virtual circuitry design and that is passed through simulators. Then you'll start developing testing programs, to test your creation through the simulator. And most of your tests, won't some nice visual thing... it will be: Do I see a green rectangle or red one? or text base, type thing, because you want to test the segment of circuit build by your code, and not the entire processor/circuitry/wtv you are making.

XDroidie626 · July 14, 2015

I'm a little confused aha, are you just studying this at your own pass on your own time?

Or are you saying you switched your University Degree from Computer Science to a more Electronic Engineering based course? o:

I'm currently studying Computer Systems Engineering at University, which is essentially a good mix between Computer Science and Electronic/Electrical Engineering, like last year we had 3 modules related to Computer Science and programming (Robotics/Object Oriented Programming/Databse+Web), then the other 5 were all electronics (Microcomputer Eng/Digital Systems/Eng Maths/Eng Analysis/Computer systems)

I've always enjoyed the mix, and this course let me focus more on the engineering side than the computer science side so it was perfect for me

Just a couple years left, a year in industry and maybe a masters and I'll be done aha

Im switching over from CS to Engineering, and computers is staying my hobby if you get what I mean, I can already research a lot of the stuff I need for I.T, which is really just needing to learn programming, I studied networking for quite a while although I do not see my self doing that much.