System on a chip (SoC)
What is System on a chip (SoC)?
A System on a Chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that incorporates all the components of a computer or other electronic system onto a single chip. This includes:- Processor: The central processing unit (CPU) that performs computations and tasks.
- Memory: Both volatile (RAM) and non-volatile (Flash, ROM) memory elements for data storage.
- Input/Output Interfaces: Support for various peripherals and communication interfaces such as USB, HDMI, and Bluetooth.
- Graphics Processing Unit (GPU): An integrated graphics chip for rendering images and video.
- Other Components: Additional functionality such as digital signal processors (DSP), image processors, and hardware accelerators for specific tasks.
SoCs are commonly used in mobile phones, tablets, wearables, and embedded systems due to their compact size, power efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. By integrating multiple functions on a single chip, SoCs help reduce the physical footprint and improve performance while consuming less power compared to traditional multi-chip solutions. They are designed for specific applications, allowing manufacturers to optimize performance and functionality for particular use cases.
- Snippet from Wikipedia: System on a chip
A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. SoCs ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or electronic system. These components usually include an on-chip central processing unit (CPU), memory interfaces, input/output devices and interfaces, and secondary storage interfaces, often alongside other components such as radio modems and a graphics processing unit (GPU) – all on a single substrate or microchip. SoCs may contain digital and also analog, mixed-signal and often radio frequency signal processing functions (otherwise it may be considered on a discrete application processor).
High-performance SoCs are often paired with dedicated and physically separate memory and secondary storage (such as LPDDR and eUFS or eMMC, respectively) chips that may be layered on top of the SoC in what is known as a package on package (PoP) configuration, or be placed close to the SoC. Additionally, SoCs may use separate wireless modems (especially WWAN modems).
An SoC integrates a microcontroller, microprocessor or perhaps several processor cores with peripherals like a GPU, Wi-Fi and cellular network radio modems or one or more coprocessors. Similar to how a microcontroller integrates a microprocessor with peripheral circuits and memory, an SoC can be seen as integrating a microcontroller with even more advanced peripherals.
Compared to a multi-chip architecture, an SoC with equivalent functionality will have reduced power consumption as well as a smaller semiconductor die area. This comes at the cost of reduced replaceability of components. By definition, SoC designs are fully or nearly fully integrated across different component modules. For these reasons, there has been a general trend towards tighter integration of components in the computer hardware industry, in part due to the influence of SoCs and lessons learned from the mobile and embedded computing markets.
SoCs are very common in the mobile computing (as in smart devices such as smartphones and tablet computers) and edge computing markets.
Related:
- Apple Silicon (M-series)
External links:
- What is system-on-a-chip (SoC)? | Definition from TechTarget —techtarget.com
- What is a system-on-a-chip (SoC)? This definition explains what an SoC is and discusses examples and uses, including wearable computing.
- What Is a System on a Chip (SoC)? —howtogeek.com
- The next step in electronics integration makes devices smaller, cheaper, and faster.