Marking more than forty years since the inception of the system on chip, the two things that are driving the designers up the wall is how to miniaturize and integrate maximum components possible on a single chip.
Against this constant struggle, integrated circuits are increasingly becoming more complex and expensive since the semiconductor market began to embrace new design and reusable methodologies to manage the increased complexity inherent in large chips with maximum integration.
Riding on the demand of the market, one of the most emerging trends that are gaining instant popularity is Top System on Chip (SoC) Technology and the extensive SoC Applications that fabricate a whole system on a single chip.
Developed due to increased market demand, SoCs come with predesigned as well as pre-verified blocks that are often known as intellectual property (IP) blocks, IP cores, or virtual components, and are obtained from internal sources or third parties and finally combined on a single chip.
Today, we’re going to take a dip in the vast background of chip integration as well as various SoC Applications and the reasons developers decided to develop this technology.
So, let’s go for the knowledge dive of Top System on Chip (SoC) Technology and their relevance in today’s world.
Recap of Chip Integration
Since the inception of the electronics industry, the market has followed a predictable path that was centered around two major trends like miniaturization and integration.
Though miniaturization was seen more often in passive components like capacitors, resistors, and transistors, integration spread its roots in early 1958 with the invention of the integrated circuit (IC), allowing for even further miniaturization in turn.
Once the trend of miniaturization gains momentum, computers equipped with vacuum tubes got smaller too that were later on replaced with discrete transistors, and integrated circuits.
Another development that gave the much-needed push in the integration aspect of electronics devices was when in 1972, Intel combined the elements of a computer CPU into a single integrated circuit, and thus one of the first commercials, single-chip microprocessors were born.
At present, microprocessors along with microcontrollers (MCUs) are now getting integrated on SoC to further miniaturize the electronics devices to drive the growing demand of adding maximum features in a digital device in a miniaturized version.
MCUs Vs SoCs
Despite having a lot of definitions of Top System on Chip (SoC) Technology, the distinction between a micro-controller unit (MCU) and SoCs are quite vague in comparison.
We often use these two terms interchangeably in certain circles since they both come in the area of embedded systems.
Nevertheless, there are some minimal differences between them that makes them distinct from each other like,
Micro-controllers are simply a computer on a single IC containing processor core, memory, and programmable input/output (I/O) peripherals, Timers and Counters and many more features.
Unlike SoCs, peripherals included on the micro-controller are a lot less specific are mainly focused on small embedded control systems or control applications.
SoCs represent a single chip that does everything while replacing the work of multiple chips.
Top System on Chip (SoC) Technology generally includes one or more CPUs, MCUs, DSPs etc., and normally does not have a specific standard about what type of circuitry it requires.
Reasons for Upgrading to Top System on Chip (SoC) Technology
Integrating a computer system on a single piece of silicon enables lower power requirements, reduces cost while boosting performance, and also reduces the physical size of the digital devices.
All of the features mentioned above help a chip designer dramatically when trying to create ever-more-powerful smartphones, tablets, and laptops that utilize less battery life thus, adding to the list of Top System on Chip (SoC) Technology.
Developed to integrate as many components as possible, SoC Applications cover a wide set of fields in the technology market as most of the sectors are getting digitized at a rapid pace.
The multiple fields that are impacted with SoC Applications include,
- Automotive
- Smartphone
- Embedded
- Gaming
- AI
- IoT Devices and many more
The most common Top System on Chip (SoC) Technology applications we see around are in mobile applications, like smartphones, smartwatches and tablets.
Other Top System on Chip (SoC) Technology applications range from signal speech processing, automotive-like Connected vehicles, data communication and PC interfaces.
Top System on Chip (SoC) Technology Manufacturers
Due to the extensive range of Top System on Chip (SoC) Technology and its applications, SoC manufacturers also come from different fields like,
STMicroelectronics: A French-Italian multinational electronics and semiconductor manufacturer that originated in 1987, ST specializes in the design, development, manufacture of a wide range of semiconductors.
TSMC Limited: Known as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited or TSMC, it is a manufacturing multinational that was founded in 1987. The company specializes in the manufacture of different kinds of chips for clients with process nodes from 2 micrometers to 5 nanometers.
Broadcom: With its inception in 1961, this American global manufacturer and supplier company offers a wide range of semiconductor as well as infrastructure software products.
Qualcomm: With the origins of America, this multinational semiconductor company was founded in 1985. Qualcomm manufactures semiconductors, software and its related services in wireless technology.
NXP Semiconductors: An American semiconductor manufacturer, NXP is based in the Netherlands and was founded in 1953. The company mainly dabbles in the fields of robotics, heavy electrical equipment, energy and automation.
Encompassed with digital devices all around, we can no longer deny the extreme Role of Top System on Chip (SoC) Technology that are driving the digital device market as devices are becoming smaller and more featured as the days pass by.
