What are system-on-a-chip ? What are the advantages and challenges of SoC?
2023-04-20
Several chips with different functions are integrated into "one" chip with complete functions, and then packaged into "one" integrated circuit, which is called "system-on-a-chip (SoC: System on a Chip)".
For example: the processor is turned into a "CPU unit", and the north bridge chip is turned into an "MCH unit". The size of the laptop.
Advantages of SoC
➤Reduced volume: Combining several integrated circuits with different functions on a printed circuit board has a large volume; if integrated into an SoC chip, the volume will be reduced.
➤Cost reduction: multiple integrated circuits need to be packaged and tested, and the cost is high; if integrated into an SoC chip, only one integrated circuit needs to be packaged and tested, and the cost is low.
➤Reduce power consumption and improve computing speed:use PCB to combine several integrated circuits with different functions. Electrical signals must be transmitted on the PCB for a long distance before computing, which consumes a lot of power and the computing speed is slow; If it is integrated into a SoC, the electrical signal can be calculated by transmitting a short distance in the same integrated circuit, the power consumption is low, and the calculation speed is fast.
➤Improve system functions: integrate integrated circuits with different functions into a SoC, which is smaller in size and can integrate more "functional units" to form a more powerful chip.
There are already many very successful SoC chips on the market. The picture below shows the Tegra 650 multimedia system single chip designed by Nvidia, which combines the CPU, GPU, image processing unit, other peripheral interfaces and other functional units.
Challenge of SoC
Since the design and verification of SoC must cooperate with semiconductor manufacturing technology, and must have a complete mix of signals, digital and analog, low frequency and high frequency, memory and other related intellectual property (IP) industries to cooperate with each other, so the system single chip There are still many difficulties to be overcome in the design of the SoC, and the design bottlenecks of the SoC include:
➤Manufacturing bottleneck: Different functional units have different process technologies, and it is very difficult to manufacture them on silicon chips at the same time. It is easier to integrate digital circuits, but more difficult to integrate digital and analog circuits together.
➤Packaging bottleneck: SoC are powerful, and the increase in operating frequency will inevitably cause noise and mutual interference in the signal line, which must be overcome by using technologies such as flip-chip packaging, solder ball packaging, and wafer-level packaging.
➤Test bottleneck: The test machine must have multiple digital and analog signal test functions at the same time, so it is necessary to develop a multi-functional single-model test machine to test SoC chips with different functions at the same time.
Why do we need SoC?
The development of smartphones
Since Apple released the iPhone 3G in 2007, Apple began to design its own A-series chips. From the A4 chip in 2010 to the current M2 series, the performance has exploded while maintaining power saving. There are more and more transistors plugged. Of course, it cannot be ignored that this is also the result of investing a lot of money, that is, researchers, but it can prove that the advantages brought by SoC are not trivial.
Demand for the IoT
The Internet of Things is also one of the thrusts of SoC. The Apple Airpod has Bluetooth, music playback, and the Apple Watch has Wifi, display, and sound. But it is difficult to use the same CPU to complete these two completely different applications, so facing the diverse application requirements of the Internet of Things, SoC just happens to be a great solution.
By integrating different chips, and designing SoC chips for different applications, let the architect design a suitable micro-architecture, optimize and test, to solve the needs of IoT applications, such as: longer use time with better Sound quality effects, or better sensing technology with wireless capabilities, etc.
The growth of AI
In fact, the concept of neural network has been proposed very early. The reason for its rapid development in the past ten years is due to the breakthrough growth of GPU computing power, so that models that used to take weeks to train can now be completed in a few days or even hours, which also leads the world into the era of big data.
The integration of CPUs and GPUs is also driving the development of AI SoC chips.
In addition, market demand, application-level expansion, and additional data processing have also promoted the increase in SoC demand.
END
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