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System on a chip is generally called SoC, also called system-level chip. It is a product or an integrated circuit with a dedicated target, which contains a complete system and all the contents of embedded software. It is also a technology to realize the whole process from determining the system function to the software/hardware division, and completing the design.
The SoC integrates many of the most critical components on mobile phones, such as CPU, GPU, and memory. In other words, although it exists on the motherboard as a chip, it is composed of many components. For example, what we usually call Qualcomm 801, Tegra 4, A6, etc. are just the general term after system component packaging (SoC).
In a narrow sense, the system on a chip is the chip integration at the core of the information system, which is the integration of key components of the system on a chip; in a broad sense, SoC is a miniature system. If the central processing unit (CPU) is the brain, then the system on a chip is the system that includes the brain, heart, eyes, and hands. The academic circles at home and abroad generally tend to define SoC as the integration of microprocessor, analog IP core, digital IP core, and memory (or off-chip storage control interface) on a single chip. It is usually a standard product customized by customers or for specific purposes.
SoC chip
The basic content of the definition of a system on a chip is mainly in two aspects: one is its composition, and the other is its formation process. The composition of the system on a chip can be a system on a chip control logic module, a microprocessor/microcontroller CPU core module, a digital signal processor DSP module, an embedded memory module, an interface module for communicating with the outside, and an ADC/DAC containing analog front-end module, power supply, and power management module. For a wireless SoC, there are also RF front-end modules, user-defined logic (which can be implemented by FPGA or ASIC), and a micro-electromechanical module. More importantly, an SoC chip is embedded with basic software (RDOS or COS and other application software) modules or loadable user software, etc.
The system on a chip formation or production process includes the following three aspects:
1) Software and hardware co-design and verification based on a monolithic integrated system;
2) The use of logic area technology and the percentage of production capacity to be reused are effectively increased, that is, the development and research of IP core generation and reuse technology, especially the repetitive application of large-capacity memory modules embedded;
3) Design theory and technology of ultra-deep submicron (VDSM) and nano-integrated circuits.
The key technology of SoC design: SoC key technologies mainly include bus architecture technology, IP core reusable technology, software and hardware co-design technology, SoC verification technology, testability design technology, low-power design technology, ultra-deep sub-micron circuit implementation technology. It also includes embedded software transplantation and development research, which is a new interdisciplinary research field.
The functions of an electronic system can be completed on a single chip, and this system used to require one or more circuit boards, as well as various electronic devices, chips, and interconnections on the board. SoC can be regarded as the integration of buildings in cities and towns. Hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, supermarkets, hospitals, schools, bus stations, and a large number of residences are concentrated together. It constitutes the function of a small town and meets the basic needs of people for food, housing, and transportation. SoC is more about the integration of processors (including CPU, DSP), memory, various interface control modules, and various interconnected buses. The typical representative of SoC is the mobile phone chip. SoC is still not up to the single chip to realize a traditional electronic product. It can be said that SoC only realizes the function of a small town, but cannot realize the function of a city.
SOC integrated circuit
SoC has two notable features: one is the large-scale hardware, which is usually based on the IP design model; the other is the software has a large proportion and requires software and hardware co-design. It can be compared to the obvious advantages of cities over rural areas: complete facilities, convenient transportation, and high efficiency. SoC also has similar characteristics: more supporting circuits are integrated on a single chip, which saves the area of integrated circuits and also saves costs. On-chip interconnection is equivalent to urban expressways which have high speeds and low power consumption. The information transmitted between the various devices originally distributed on the circuit board is concentrated in the same chip, which is equivalent to a place that could only be reached by long-distance bus. It has moved to the city and took a subway ride. The city’s tertiary industry is developed and more competitive, and the software on the SoC is equivalent to the city’s service business. Not only is the hardware good, but the software is also good.
The same set of hardware can be used to do something today, and it can be used to do another thing tomorrow, which is similar to the increase in resource allocation and scheduling and utilization of the entire society in the city. It can be seen that SoC has obvious advantages in terms of performance, cost, power consumption, reliability, and life cycle, and scope of application, so it is an inevitable trend in the development of integrated circuit design. In the field of performance and power-sensitive terminal chips, SoC has occupied a dominant position; and its applications are expanding to a wider range. The realization of a complete electronic system on a single chip is the future development direction of the IC industry.
The development of integrated circuits has a history of 40 years. It has been advancing in accordance with the law indicated by Moore and has now entered the deep submicron stage. Due to the needs of the information market and the development of microelectronics itself, the development of a variety of process integration technologies and application-oriented system-level chips with microfabrication (the feature size of integrated circuits continues to shrink) has been the main feature. As the semiconductor industry enters the era of ultra-deep sub-micron and even nano-processing, a complex electronic system, such as mobile phone chips, digital TV chips, and DVD chips, can be realized on a single integrated circuit chip. In the next few years, hundreds of millions of transistors and tens of millions of logic gates are expected to be implemented on a single chip. System on a chip design technology began in the mid-1990s. With the development of semiconductor process technology, IC designers can integrate more and more complex functions on a single silicon chip. SoC is precisely in integrated circuits (IC) to the integrated system (IS) under the general direction. The FlexCore system released by Motorola in 1994 (used to make custom microprocessors based on 68000 and PowerPC) and the SoC designed by LSILogic for Sony in 1995 may be the earliest reports of SoC design based on IP (intellectual property) core. Because SoC can make full use of the existing design accumulation and significantly improve the design capabilities of ASICs, it develops very rapidly and has attracted the attention of industry and academia. SOC is the inevitable trend of integrated circuit development, the inevitable development of technology, and the future development of the IC industry.
The current chip design industry is facing a series of challenges. System on a Chip has become the focus of the IC design industry. SoC performance is getting stronger and bigger. The scale of SoC chips is generally much larger than that of ordinary ASICs. At the same time, the complexity of SoC design is greatly increased due to design difficulties caused by deep sub-micron processes. In SoC design, simulation and verification are the most complex and time-consuming links in the SoC design process, accounting for about 50% to 80% of the entire chip development cycle. The use of advanced design and simulation verification methods has become the key to the success of SoC design. The development trend of SoC technology is based on the SoC development platform. Platform-based design is an integration-oriented design method that can achieve maximum system reuse. It shares the results of IP core development and system integration, and constantly reorganizes the value chain. On the basis of delay and power consumption, the shift to yield, reliability, electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise, cost, ease of use, etc. have enabled the rapid development of system-level integration capabilities. The so-called SoC technology is a highly integrated, firmware-based system integration technology. The core idea of using SoC technology to design a system is to integrate the entire application electronic system into one chip. When designing an application system using SoC technology, all the system circuits are integrated together except those external circuits or mechanical parts that cannot be integrated.
System function integration is the core technology of SoC
In traditional application electronic system design, it is necessary to synthesize the entire system according to the functional modules required by the design, that is, according to the functions required by the design, find the corresponding integrated circuit, and then design the connection form and the selected circuit according to the technical indicators required by the design parameter. The result of this design is a distributed application electronic system structure based on functional integrated circuits. Whether the design result can meet the design requirements depends not only on the technical parameters of the circuit chip but also on the electromagnetic compatibility characteristics of the entire system PCB layout. At the same time, for systems that need to be digitalized, microcontrollers are often required, so the impact of distributed systems on the characteristics of circuit firmware must also be considered. Obviously, the implementation of the traditional application electronic system uses integrated technology for distributed functions.
For SoC, the design of the applied electronic system is also based on the function and parameter requirements, but it is essentially different from the traditional method. SoC is not a distributed system synthesis technology based on functional circuits. It is system firmware and circuit synthesis technology based on functional IP. First of all, the realization of the function is no longer integrated for the functional circuit, but for the circuit synthesis of the overall firmware realization of the system, that is, the circuit integration of the whole system is performed using IP technology. Secondly, the final result of the circuit design is related to the IP function modules and firmware characteristics, but basically has nothing to do with the way the circuit is divided between the PCB and the wiring technology. Therefore, the electromagnetic compatibility characteristics of the design result are greatly improved. In other words, the result of the design is very close to the ideal design goal.
The key technologies of SoC design mainly include bus architecture technology, IP core reusable technology, software and hardware co-design technology, SoC verification technology, testability design technology, low power design technology, ultra-deep sub-micron circuit implementation technology, etc.
Firmware integration is the basic design idea of SoC
In the traditional distributed integrated design technology, the firmware characteristics of the system are often difficult to achieve the optimal. The reason is that the distribution function of integrated technology is used. In general, in order to meet as many use areas as possible, functional integrated circuits must consider two design goals: one is to meet the functional control requirements of a variety of application areas; the other is to consider meeting a wider range of application functions and technologies index. Therefore, functional integrated circuits (that is, customized integrated circuits) must add a number of circuits in I/O and control, so that general users can get as much development performance as possible. However, it is not easy to achieve the best application electronic system of customized circuit design.
For SoC, it can be seen from the core technology of SoC that the basic design idea of using SoC technology to design and apply electronic systems is to achieve system-wide firmware integration. Users only need to select and improve each part of the module and embedded structure according to their needs to achieve fully optimized firmware features, without having to spend time familiarizing themselves with the development technology of custom circuits. The sudden advantage of the firmware foundation is that the system can be closer to the ideal system and easier to achieve design requirements.
Embedded system is the basic structure of SoC
In the application electronic system designed using SoC technology, the embedded structure can be realized very conveniently. The realization of various embedded structures is very simple, as long as you select the corresponding core according to the system needs, and then select the matching IP module according to the design requirements, you can complete the entire system hardware structure. Especially when using intelligent circuit synthesis technology, the firmware characteristics of the entire system can be more fully realized, making the system closer to the ideal design requirements. It must be pointed out that this embedded structure of SoC can greatly shorten the application system design and development cycle.
IP is the basis of SoC design
Traditional applied electronic design engineers are faced with a variety of custom integrated circuits, while electronic system design engineers using SoC technology are faced with a huge IP library, and all design work is based on IP modules. SoC technology turns an applied electronic system design engineer into an application-oriented electronic device design engineer. It can be seen that SoC is a design technology based on IP modules, and IP is the basis for SoC applications.
Different stages in SoC technology
In the functional design stage, the designer must fully consider the firmware characteristics of the system, and use the firmware characteristics for comprehensive functional design. When the functional design is completed, you can enter the IP synthesis stage. The task of the IP synthesis stage uses a powerful IP library to realize the functions of the system. After the IP combination is completed, first perform a function simulation to check whether the design function requirements of the system are realized. After the functional simulation is passed, it is the turn of circuit simulation. The purpose is to check whether the circuit composed of IP modules can realize the design function and reach the corresponding design technical indicators. The final stage of the design is to perform corresponding tests on the manufactured SoC products in order to adjust various technical parameters and determine application parameters.
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