Industry Expert Blogs

A system on chip (SoC) is exactly as its name suggests, an entire system on a single silicon chip. This chip or integrated circuit (IC) holds many components of a computer designed to work together to achieve a common goal. The first part of the term - System - says that it's all about a complex electronic assembly, while the last part - Chip - tells you that all the components of that system are squeezed together on a single IC. Depending on the kind of system that has been reduced to the size of a chip, it can perform a variety of functions including artificial intelligence, signal processing, wireless communication and more.

There is no simple, easy answer to this question, which reflects the nature of SoC design itself, in that it is a complex, multi-dimensional topic with many variables that have to be considered. As technologies advance so does the difficulty in designing an SoC. In this blog I will cover some key ideas that I believe are useful throughout most, if not all, SoC designs that will enable you to successfully understand the design and implementation process of your own SoC.

1. The Plan

Before we dive in, I’ll add a caveat – the specification and the schedule can, and probably will, change over time. This is not a bad thing but is something to be embraced, understood and allowed for.

With that in mind, a detailed and well-written specification is key at the start of any SoC design. You can have a game-changing idea, but if no one understands what it does and how it works, it’s going to be very hard to see that idea realised in silicon. Having a detailed specification, allows someone reading it to understand exactly what the SoC does. As the idea goes through the different stages of design, the specification is likely to evolve. Not only getting more in-depth as you learn about the how the system works in practise but also improving the descriptions of modules.

The specification should also be well-written. Simply put, if an engineer, who is designing a block according to the specification, cannot understand clearly what it does then the block is likely to not have the expected behaviour. Having the specification peer-reviewed by a person who did not write the specification can be a really useful tool to iron out any issues that the author may have missed.

A successful SoC design should also include a schedule. Having a schedule that documents expected timings for each part of the project is a valuable tool for greater decision making. A key part of the schedule, and one that may get overlooked, is flexibility. This is flexibility in the sense of having time built into the schedule such that bugs can be dealt with and implementations can be improved if they are found lacking. This flexibility will allow for greater risk management and a more accurate time scale for the project. It also enables stages to be rescheduled and sometimes run in parallel to achieve the required time frame.

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