All You Need To Know About SoC (for MI users only)
Hi Mi Fans,
Gone are the days when a mobile phone was judged by its design. In the past, no one really cared about the speed of the interface or the number of pixels in the display, a phone was popular because of the brand and the design. Skip to the present and the mobile phone industry (tablets included) is actually competing with the PC market. Companies have always talked about how the mobile phone is like a computer in your pocket and looking at the latest trend of smartphones, that line is starting to blur. Naturally, just like any computer, the CPU is the first to go through major changes since at the end of the day, your camera, screen resolution, apps and OS can only improve if the CPU gets more powerful.
When buying smartphones and tablets, we often talk about their processing power, and make a big fuss of their speed, and whether they can offer single-, dual-, or multiple-core capabilities. And while we do focus on the processor most of the time, you’ll have to know that things aren’t as simple as that. Instead of just simple processors, we have Systems on a Chip (SoC) inside these devices that offer more complex functionality.
You’ve heard the terms SoC being used very often in spec sheets and reviews, so what is it?
What is System On A Chip?
Since smartphones and tablets are basically smaller computers, they require pretty much the same components we see in desktops and laptops in order to offer us all the amazing things they can do (apps, music and video playing, 3D gaming support, advanced wireless features, etc).
But smartphones and tablets do not offer the same amount of internal space as desktops and laptops for the various components needed such as the logic board, the processor, the RAM, the graphics card, and others. That means these internal parts need to be as small as possible, so that device manufacturers can use the remaining space to fit the device with a long-lasting battery life.
But smartphones and tablets do not offer the same amount of internal space as desktops and laptops for the various components needed such as the logic board, the processor, the RAM, the graphics card, and others. That means these internal parts need to be as small as possible, so that device manufacturers can use the remaining space to fit the device with a long-lasting battery life.
Thanks to the wonders of miniaturization, SoC manufacturers, like Qualcomm, Nvidia or Texas Instruments, can place some of those components on a single chip, the System on a Chip that powers your beloved smartphone.
What's Inside Of A soc?
Now that we know what a SoC is, let’s take a quick look at the components that can be found inside it. Mind you, not all the following parts are built in all the different SoCs that we’re going to show you later on, but in order to better understand how a SoC works, you should have a general picture of what goes inside it:
CPU–
What's Inside Of A soc?
Now that we know what a SoC is, let’s take a quick look at the components that can be found inside it. Mind you, not all the following parts are built in all the different SoCs that we’re going to show you later on, but in order to better understand how a SoC works, you should have a general picture of what goes inside it:
CPU–
The central processing unit, whether it’s single- or multiple-core, this is what makes everything possible on your smartphone. Most processors found inside the SoCs that we’re going to look at will be based on ARM technology, but more on that later
MEMORY – just like in a computer, memory is required to perform the various tasks smartphone and tablets are capable of, and therefore SoCs come with various memory architectures on board
GPU–
The graphic processing unit is also an important component on the SoC, and it’s responsible for handling those complex 3D games on the smartphone or tablets. As you can expect, there are various GPU architectures available out there, and we’re going to further detail them in what follows
Northbridge– this is a component that handles communications between the CPU and other components of the SoC including the southbridge
Southbridge– a second chipset usually found on computers that handles various I/O functions. In some cases the southbridge can be found on the SoC
Cellular Radios– some SoCs also come with certain modems on board that are needed by mobile operators. Such is the case with the Snapdragon S4 from Qualcomm, which has an embedded LTE modem on board responsible for 4G LTE connectivity
Other Radios – some SoCs may also have other components responsible for other types of connectivity, including Wifi, GPS/GLONASS or Bluetooth. Again, the S4 is a good example in this regard.
Other Circuitry.
The Fabrication Process -
"Fabrication process", "manufacturing process" and "lithographic process" are some of the terms used when talking about how a particular chip is manufactured. The most basic units of any electronic circuit today are transistors, which must be laid out in logical blocks. As technology improves, transistors become smaller and more efficient, which makes it possible to use many more of them and still reduce the amount of power needed to drive them all.
The layout of the various logic blocks and the paths connecting them all still take up physical space, which imposes constraints on how much logic can be implemented in a certain area. Since these devices also dissipate power in the form of heat, creating a small chip that does a lot of cool stuff is becoming more and more difficult.
"Fabrication process", "manufacturing process" and "lithographic process" are some of the terms used when talking about how a particular chip is manufactured. The most basic units of any electronic circuit today are transistors, which must be laid out in logical blocks. As technology improves, transistors become smaller and more efficient, which makes it possible to use many more of them and still reduce the amount of power needed to drive them all.
The layout of the various logic blocks and the paths connecting them all still take up physical space, which imposes constraints on how much logic can be implemented in a certain area. Since these devices also dissipate power in the form of heat, creating a small chip that does a lot of cool stuff is becoming more and more difficult.
With today's fabrication processes, these transistors are a few tens of nanometres (one billionth of a metre, or one thousandth of a micron) in size each, and there are billions of them in each chip. The fabrication process is usually reported in nanometers, which denotes the size of the transistors in question, such as 20nm or 14nm. The general rule is that smaller is better.
Not all SoC vendors actually manufacture their own chips. Most designs are outsourced to a small handful of companies. The leading fabrication facilities today are Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Samsung, and GlobalFoundries.
ARM vs x86 CPU Architecture-
Throughout this article you will see us mention the ARM technology more than once, since the SoCs used by current Android smartphones and tablets are built using this ARM architecture. So what is ARM exactly? Maximum PC shares some details regarding the early days of ARM:
In the beginning, the ARM architecture was specifically developed for use in a PC—the Acorn Archimedes to be precise. In 1987, the Archimedes hit the market, powered by the ARM2 processor with up to 4MB of RAM and a 20MB hard drive. With only 30,000 transistors (less than half of the Motorola 68000’s 68,000), the ARM2 was one of the simplest 32-bit processors of its time. This lower transistor count, paired with the efficient reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture, allowed ARM2 to outperform Intel’s 80286 while consuming less electricity.
What’s important to remember is that ARM is still the preferred choice by SoC manufacturers, as the architecture ensures high performance at low power, which is what customers are unconsciously interested in.
The Intel 8086 CPU launched in 1978 was a 16-bit microprocessor that was followed by several successors whose names also ended in “86.” Thus, the x86 term was coined. Today the x86 architecture also includes 32-bit CPUs, which can be found in various computers that you may be using on a daily basis. The disadvantage of x86 architecture in mobile SoC is that they’re not as power efficient as ARM-based CPU. Only Intel currently develops an x86-based SoC for mobile devices, the Atom Medfield platform.
GPU Architecture-
The SoCs that we’re going to describe below use various GPU technologies coming from various companies. You’ll see GeForce, Adreno, ARM Mali, or PowerVR get mentioned a few times so here’s what these names mean:
GeForce – produced by NVIDIA, these are the ultra low power graphics cards found on Tegra 3 SoC
Adreno – produced by Qualcomm, the Adreno GPUs are part of the Snapdragon SoC made by the same company. Some Adreno GPUs can also be used on future Microsoft Windows 8 devices.
ARM Mali – as you may have guessed, Mali GPUs are designed by ARM and they’re currently used on various SoC designs including Exynos and NovaThor
PowerVR – PowerVR is a leading GPU designers, whose GPUs are found on various SoCs including Medfield, NovaThor (future designs), OMAP, and even Apple Ax.
What’s important to remember is that ARM is still the preferred choice by SoC manufacturers, as the architecture ensures high performance at low power, which is what customers are unconsciously interested in.
The Intel 8086 CPU launched in 1978 was a 16-bit microprocessor that was followed by several successors whose names also ended in “86.” Thus, the x86 term was coined. Today the x86 architecture also includes 32-bit CPUs, which can be found in various computers that you may be using on a daily basis. The disadvantage of x86 architecture in mobile SoC is that they’re not as power efficient as ARM-based CPU. Only Intel currently develops an x86-based SoC for mobile devices, the Atom Medfield platform.
GPU Architecture-
The SoCs that we’re going to describe below use various GPU technologies coming from various companies. You’ll see GeForce, Adreno, ARM Mali, or PowerVR get mentioned a few times so here’s what these names mean:
GeForce – produced by NVIDIA, these are the ultra low power graphics cards found on Tegra 3 SoC
Adreno – produced by Qualcomm, the Adreno GPUs are part of the Snapdragon SoC made by the same company. Some Adreno GPUs can also be used on future Microsoft Windows 8 devices.
ARM Mali – as you may have guessed, Mali GPUs are designed by ARM and they’re currently used on various SoC designs including Exynos and NovaThor
PowerVR – PowerVR is a leading GPU designers, whose GPUs are found on various SoCs including Medfield, NovaThor (future designs), OMAP, and even Apple Ax.
The Bottom Line -
It's easy to get caught up in speeds and the number of cores, but there's a lot more going on inside your smartphone's SoC. Efficiency and battery life determine what kind of battery each device needs, and thus its size and weight. Newer processors are usually more efficient, but not always more powerful. New features mean devices can support value-added functions such as on-the-fly image processing, voice and gesture commands, augmented reality, and much more.
Performance levels are also rising to the extent that affordable smartphones can now do things that would have only been possible with very expensive devices a year or two ago. A budget phone today will deliver a smooth interface and let you run all the apps you need. This can only spell out good news for millions of buyers around the world.
Performance levels are also rising to the extent that affordable smartphones can now do things that would have only been possible with very expensive devices a year or two ago. A budget phone today will deliver a smooth interface and let you run all the apps you need. This can only spell out good news for millions of buyers around the world.
Thank You
Comments