Nvidia's very exclusive measuring device

[NumLock21]

When Nvidia recruiter Lisa Calderon about to interview someone, she sets a very exclusive item next to her to get the conversation going, and 100% of the time it always works. The exclusive item is only sold in the Nvidia's internal store, and every time they're release, it's sold out within minutes. This exclusive Nvidia item is the Nvidia Ruler, a typical 12 inch ruler with the inches on one side and centimeters on the other. The idea started back in 2016, when VP of Hardware Engineering at Nvidia, Andrew Bell wanted to give the engineers, something they can easily carry with them to design meetings, but it didn't really set off until he noticed that newly hired engineers, who have just graduated from college, all learned their degree in the digital world and applying that to the real world is something they need to better understand. And so the Nvidia Ruler was born, with the help of another Nvidia engineer, John, who designed the ruler on the same machine Nvidia uses to design their other products. On the ruler are actual size layout of gpus, capacitors, mosfets, socs, and other unique markings, where it helps engineers, not to use things too small or large when creating their designs. 
 

Quote

 

They not only give engineers the ability to see at a glance each part’s size, they show crucial details, such as the position of the scores of ball grid arrays that need to be carefully aligned with the pins on the back of each processor to bring them to life.

NVIDIA’s flagship products are just the highlights on a ruler that’s packed with details. And talking with John and Andy about them is a fascinating crash-course in their craft.

Take the series of holes that increase in size from bottom to top at the center of a table on one end of the ruler. A validation engineer, Andy explains, can use it to measure the diameter of a wire.

The engineer can then refer to another table on the ruler — complete with a handy formula — to calculate resistance per unit of length so he or she can solve for what diameter of wire you need for a board, and know how many volts you’ll drop when you carry a certain amount of current through it.

The ruler itself is a remarkable work of craftsmanship, too. It’s made from a printed circuit boards, the multi-layered sandwiches of fiberglass and copper foil that connect the electronic components inside just about every electronic gadget.

The gold markings are left by the same electroless nickel immersion gold, or ENIG, plating process used in many electronic components. The final product is manufactured by a small shop in Silicon Valley with a long track-record of creating custom circuit boards.

 

The Nvidia rulers sells for $3.50 from their internal store and so far there are 3 ways to get one

1. Get a engineering degree and work at Nvidia

2. Know someone that works there

3. Get it on ebay where it will cost a lot more

 

 

https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2017/12/22/nvidia-ruler/

https://www.techpowerup.com/239958/not-too-cool-to-rule-one-of-nvidias-most-coveted-products-is-a-ruler

[Orangeator]

I mean I feel like anyone could make exact replicas of this no problem given high enough res images of the ruler...

[Ginger_]

Cool I guess? Honestly it's not surprising, I have an old esd mat at my work with the color codes for old resistors that they supplied years ago. I don't think this really is news

[NumLock21]

6 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

I mean I feel like anyone could make exact replicas of this no problem given high enough res images of the ruler...

Not really

Quote

The ruler itself is a remarkable work of craftsmanship, too. It’s made from a printed circuit boards, the multi-layered sandwiches of fiberglass and copper foil that connect the electronic components inside just about every electronic gadget.

 

[flibberdipper]

Neato. If I had a use for a ruler I would probably get one of these bad bois.

[Hiya!]

So thats it?  a freakin ruler? -__-

[bob345]

pcb rulers are not all that special. easy to find them, you just wont get the nvidia specific bga footprints

 

https://www.adafruit.com/product/1554

[mariushm]

18 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Not really

 

See https://www.eevblog.com/projects/uruler/

or this : https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/ruler-from-digikey/

 

All the stuff on the nVidia rules are standardized patterns (bga, lga, qfn, soic, ssot223, capacitor diameters and lead pitch) , everything on that ruler can be copy-pasted from existing libraries from circuit layout programs. You'd just need a good picture to figure out the spacing between part footprints and the actual number of contacts on each part footprint (ex if it's soic 28 pin or 32 pin etc)

 

 

[NumLock21]

1 minute ago, mariushm said:

See https://www.eevblog.com/projects/uruler/

 

All the stuff on the nVidia rules are standardized patterns (bga, lga, qfn, soic, ssot223, capacitor diameters and lead pitch) , everything on that ruler can be copy-pasted from existing libraries from circuit layout programs. You'd just need a good picture to figure out the spacing between part footprints and the actual number of contacts on each part footprint (ex if it's soic 28 pin or 32 pin etc)

 

that's only 7 inches not 12 inches

[Rune]

I....want one.

[mariushm]

Just now, NumLock21 said:

that's only 7 inches not 12 inches

They cut them out of big circuit boards which are something like 650 mm by 400 mm in size. Smaller circuit board manufacturers use something like 350 mm by 240 mm panels.

The smaller rulers (7" or ~180mm) are probably like that for more efficient use of big panels of circuit board ( 2 x 180mm = 360 mm which is close to 400mm, the maximum height of the panel).

nVidia probably just cuts them the long way from the circuit board panel and doesn't care about more wasted circuit board, more trash...

 

 

[laminutederire]

3 hours ago, Hiya! said:

So thats it?  a freakin ruler? -__-

A ruler to rule them all...

I think they had to so that american engineers kbew about the metric system scale wise!

[Hiya!]

4 minutes ago, laminutederire said:

A ruler to rule them all...

I think they had to so that american engineers kbew about the metric system scale wise!

y..you made me laugh lol

I thought it was some high tech measuring device for gpu manufacturing purposes or something

[Stefan1024]

Just a standard PCB ruler, nothing fancy. In fact there are much better once with componets assembled and running (e.g. LEDs).

[porina]

These aren't uncommon, and are often made by PCB companies as demo products to try and attract new customers. Probably the only unique thing about the nvidia one is the company logo. I'd still want one, along with the Titan USB drive 

 

[Bananasplit_00]

Neat i guess? Think I'd rather work for AMD but I wouldn't say no if NVIDIA want me once I'm done with uni lol

[paddy-stone]

4 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

that's only 7 inches not 12 inches

That's what she said

 

[laminutederire]

48 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

Fun Fact: you guys should have been on the metric system right now, if it wasn't for the word that is:

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

 

(although to be fair it'd probably didn't catch on because some asshats tried to profit off metric rulers.)

 

Well it's a well put metaphor for the american society itself: arrogantly proud society built ob half assed basis with no intention whatsoever to even try to accept something from the outside.

And that's also why the US sucks at science. They even crashed rockets by not wanting to use the metric system at the beginning...

Why I am saying this is because the metric system us very well thought off scientifically and philosophically speaking, as there just remains the hurdle of defining grams properly, but the rest is air tight!

[System Error Message]

someones over proud of their 12 inches

Im sure theres others that look prettier.

[Matu20]

Huh, this is really cool.

[Nicnac]

Nice article but not really news

[Taf the Ghost]

1 hour ago, laminutederire said:

Well it's a well put metaphor for the american society itself: arrogantly proud society built ob half assed basis with no intention whatsoever to even try to accept something from the outside.

And that's also why the US sucks at science. They even crashed rockets by not wanting to use the metric system at the beginning...

Why I am saying this is because the metric system us very well thought off scientifically and philosophically speaking, as there just remains the hurdle of defining grams properly, but the rest is air tight!

Well, if you're going to get into America bashing, do realize we excel at all of the sciences. All of them. And it has a lot to do with cultural rejection of unnatural approaches derived from brutalist philosophical products, like SI for casual use. The Imperial System is more naturalistic and understandable in the common measures that interact with daily life. This is the reason we use mostly Imperial, but use SI in scientific applications.

 

I do love the standard line about Americans not knowing about the rest of the world, yet it never seems to come up that you can simply teach both systems, which we do. 

[cj09beira]

39 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Well, if you're going to get into America bashing, do realize we excel at all of the sciences. All of them. And it has a lot to do with cultural rejection of unnatural approaches derived from brutalist philosophical products, like SI for casual use. The Imperial System is more naturalistic and understandable in the common measures that interact with daily life. This is the reason we use mostly Imperial, but use SI in scientific applications.

 

I do love the standard line about Americans not knowing about the rest of the world, yet it never seems to come up that you can simply teach both systems, which we do. 

And also why being proud and have strict borders now a bad thing it's how you keep the bad people out

[laminutederire]

40 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Well, if you're going to get into America bashing, do realize we excel at all of the sciences. All of them. And it has a lot to do with cultural rejection of unnatural approaches derived from brutalist philosophical products, like SI for casual use. The Imperial System is more naturalistic and understandable in the common measures that interact with daily life. This is the reason we use mostly Imperial, but use SI in scientific applications.

 

I do love the standard line about Americans not knowing about the rest of the world, yet it never seems to come up that you can simply teach both systems, which we do. 

Since when?

Nobel prizes and fields medal from the US are European or Asian and were naturalized...

Neural networks are developed in the US, yet it came from a French guy (Le Cun). Computer science started at Princeton with Von Neumann an Hungarian guy. Einstein did a lot in the US but was Austrian. Emmy Noether was from Germany and worked a lot for the US.

Tao earned the US a fields medal and he is Australian borned.

The sole reason there is science in the US is that company in the US pay people a lot and make the best people come. Simple as that.

Well better learn one system and be done with it. It just takes less time to do, and nearly everyone else is agreeing on that, which may not be for nothing...

Those person excepted, basic Americans are just average. And brillant Americans aren't that prevalent and people from everywhere else are just as good or most times better.

[ravenshrike]

2 hours ago, Taf the Ghost said:

I do love the standard line about Americans not knowing about the rest of the world, yet it never seems to come up that you can simply teach both systems, which we do. 

Course, if we were really advanced we'd teach duodecimal and hexadecimal as well.