You've heard the term System on a Chip or SoC. Do you know exactly what this is and what devices it is on?
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The term SoC in technology defines various entities, such as Security Operation Center or Service Organization Control. However, the most famous interpretation is System on a Chip and refers to hardware.
Most tech-savvy users have heard the term System on a Chip or SoC. It was not particularly popular two to three decades ago, or at least not as widely used as it is today.
However, nowadays, System on a Chip represents an approach to make electronic devices smaller, more powerful and more energy efficient than ever before.
But do you really know what SoC is? Why is it important for smartphones, tablets, wireless routers, wearables, IoT and other mobile devices? Let's see all this.
What is System on a Chip (SoC)
A System on a Chip (abbreviation = SoC) is an integrated circuit that integrates the necessary elements of a computer or an electronic system on a single chip.
Etymologically the term is correct, as the first part of the term (System) tells you that it is a complex electronic assembly of components, while the last part (Chip) tells you that all the elements of the system are compressed together into a single integrated circuit.
These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memory interfaces, graphics unit (GPU), I/O devices and interfaces, secondary storage interfaces, NPU (Neural Processing Unit) for AI tasks, often alongside other components like Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, all on a single microchip.
That is, it is a small complete computer in a single physical component.
What are SoCs used for?
This question does not require much imagination. SoCs are widely used in many industries for all kinds of purposes that require small sizes, such as for smartphones, tablets, mobile devices, digital cameras, wireless routers, and so on.
However, their most common uses today are probably for making smartphones. If you're wondering why, keep in mind that both smartphones and tablets are small devices that need a lot of processing power to operate, and they all have to meet the demands of users, which are becoming increasingly demanding.
If you've ever opened up a smartphone, even to change a battery, you'll see that its main board basically has a central chip on it, which is an SoC, and the rest of the peripherals represent the RAM, connectors, and cases.
Modern phones are becoming more and more sophisticated as their users demand to be able to browse the internet, listen to music, watch videos, use GPS navigation, take photos and film videos, play games, always be connected to social networks etc.
These things need a good processor with fast cores and, more recently, an NPU for AI tasks. And not only. They also need a good graphics chip, a fast Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, support for connecting to 5G networks, a GPS chip and a bunch of other goodies, etc.
In addition, everything must happen with the lowest possible energy consumption. After all, no one wants their devices to shut down after very few hours of use.
The answer to all these requirements is to SoCs, which offer high processing power and low power consumption..
What does an SoC include?
A System on a Chip can have a variety of components, depending on its purpose. However, since the vast majority of SoCs are used in smartphones, here is a list of the most common components of such devices:
CPU : It is the part of the SoC that is responsible for making most of the calculations and decisions. It takes data from other components and provides appropriate output responses. Most CPUs today have eight or more cores in them, so they can do parallel processing.
NPU : The Neural Processing Unit is a specialized accelerator for handling artificial intelligence (AI) tasks. Unlike CPUs and GPUs, NPUs are optimized for deep learning algorithms, making them essential for efficiently performing tasks like natural language processing or image analysis.
GPU : This is the Graphics Processing Unit and is responsible for the 3D games you can play on your smartphone and the neat visual graphics you see on your screen.
RAM : All computing devices need memory to function. Data must be used to run applications and software, and a system on a chip must have RAM. Higher-performance SoCs may not contain RAM and may be combined with dedicated memory and secondary storage chips (such as LPDDR and eUFS or eMMC, respectively).
ROM : Just as a computer needs RAM to run applications and other software, it also needs to have storage space for software like firmware or the operating system.
Modem/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth : No smartphone would be a smart phone if it couldn't connect wirelessly to networks and devices. The SoC takes care of your connection to 5G and 4G mobile networks, Wi-Fi networks, and Bluetooth connections.
The component list above refers to some basic, essential components of a system on a chip. A pure CPU even though it can also integrate a GPU cannot be called an SoC as it lacks the rest of the above list.
However, Systems on Chips may have other parts. For example, many have components designed to work with GPS services, sensors, security, or interfaces capable of handling cameras or larger displays.
Watch a video of how the chips are made
The largest Systems on Chips companies today are Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, HUAWEI, NVIDIA and Broadcom.
Qualcomm, NVIDIA and MediaTek mainly manufacture and sell SoCs to other companies. Broadcom makes SoCs used primarily in routers and networking devices, and Samsung and Huawei are two of the world's biggest smartphone companies.
Advantages of an SoC
SoCs have one key advantage: they are tiny. They do not take up much space inside an electronic device, making it a perfect solution for small devices such as smartphones, ultrabooks, tablets or mobile devices.
Having a bunch of components built in makes it easier for the manufacturer of an electronic device to save time, money, and resources on wiring important physical components and building large circuits, which also means lower manufacturing costs.
Compared to a multi-chip architecture, an SoC with equivalent functionality will have reduced power consumption as well as a smaller semiconductor die area. So an SoC can run on batteries for longer periods, making it a good choice for any portable device.
Disadvantages of an SoC
On the other hand, Systems on Chips have the disadvantage of not being customizable. By their nature, the components in an SoC are so tightly integrated and small that they cannot be made adaptable to a change, i.e. they cannot be upgraded.
So a system on a chip will usually die as it was born. Nothing changes during his lifetime.
And neither do they have the ability to replace its parts. If something breaks inside it, the whole chip goes to waste. If something breaks inside an SoC, you can't just repair or change that part, you have to replace the entire SoC.
They may be cheaper than an equivalent PC that's made of different parts, but if something breaks in the SoC the cost of replacing it far exceeds the cost of replacing the component.
The future of electronics
Life shows that things are getting smaller and smaller in size. We are not only concerned with them being more powerful in processing, but we want to carry them on us.
The permanent miniaturization of everything around us means that they increasingly rely on smaller, better, more efficient SoCs.
And since we call a SoC something that integrates many components together, this logic will never die. In the future we may see an SoC that will include several SoCs together, something like a data center.
SoCs are here to stay and will be an important part of the future of all electronics.
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