System on a chip

System on a Chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or other system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate. SoCs are very common in the mobile computing market because of their low power consumption.

Overview

A typical application is in the area of embedded systems. The microcontroller, which is a SoC, integrates a microprocessor with peripheral devices for control of a small system. Peripherals include RAM, ROM, Flash memory, and input/output (I/O) devices.

Architecture

The architecture of SoCs consists of a microprocessor or a microcontroller, memory blocks including ROM, RAM, EEPROM and flash memory, timing sources like oscillators or phase-locked loops, peripherals like timers, counters, interrupt controllers, UARTs, ADCs and USB, external interfaces like SPI, I2C, CAN, USB, Ethernet, and display interfaces like VGA, HDMI, DVI or SERDES.

Design

SoC designs are usually done on hardware description languages (HDLs) like VHDL or Verilog. These designs are then synthesized into gate-level representations that can be fabricated onto a chip. The design flow for an SoC aims to develop this device in the shortest period of time, with the lowest cost and the least risk.

Applications

SoCs can be found in almost all modern appliances that require computing power, such as smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and others. They are also used in embedded systems, automotive systems, and industrial automation.

See also

• Microcontroller
• Microprocessor
• Embedded system
• Hardware description language