soc

English analysis

SOC, or SoC, is an abbreviation, including meanings:

1) SoC: abbreviation of SystemonChip , Called system-level chip, also called system-on-chip, which means that it is a product, an integrated circuit with a special purpose, which contains a complete system and all the contents of embedded software.

2) SOC: the abbreviation of Security Operations Center, which belongs to the security operations center in the field of information security.

3) Civil Aviation SOC: the abbreviation of SystemOperationsCenter, refers to the command and control system in the field of civil aviation.

4) One is Service-OrientedComputing, "Service-Oriented Computing"

5) SOC (SignalOperationControl) is called a signal operation controller in Chinese. It is not an invention of creative concepts, but It is a fusion product proposed for the status quo of industrial automation. The technology it adopts is a mature technology that is widely used in the industrial field, but it is not a simple stacking of the existing technology, but is to encapsulate, interface, and integrate many practical technologies to form a brand-new integrated controller, which can be a controller You can complete the job, called SOC.

6) SOC (start-of-conversion), start the conversion.

7) SOC: short-open calibration, short open calibration.

System on Chip

SystemonChip, referred to as SoC, is also called System on Chip. In a narrow sense, it is the chip integration of 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 SoC It 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 memory control interface) on a single chip. It is usually customized by customers or for specific purposes. Standard product.

The basic content of SoC definition is mainly in two aspects: one is its composition, and the other is its formation process. The composition of the system-on-chip can be a system-on-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 interface module containing ADC/DAC Analog front-end module, power supply and power management module. For a wireless SoC, there are also radio frequency front-end module, user-defined logic (it can be implemented by FPGA or ASIC) and micro-electromechanical module. More importantly, a SoC chip is embedded with Basic software (RDOS or COS and other application software) modules or loadable user software, etc. The system-level 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) Reuse of logic area technology Effectively increase the proportion of production capacity, that is, the development and research of IP core generation and reuse technology, especially the repeated application of large-capacity memory module embedding;

3) Ultra-deep sub-micron (VDSM), nano-integration Circuit design theory and technology.

Key technologies of SoC design

Key technologies of SoC mainly include bus architecture technology, IP core reusable technology, software and hardware co-design technology, SoC verification technology, and design for testability technology , Low-power design technology, ultra-deep sub-micron circuit implementation technology, and include embedded software transplantation, development research, is an interdisciplinary emerging research field.

Overview

SoC is the abbreviation of SystemonChip, literally translated as "chip-level system", usually abbreviated as "system on chip". Because it involves "Chip", SoC will also reflect the connection and difference between "integrated circuit" and "chip", and its related content includes integrated circuit design, system integration, chip design, production, packaging, testing, etc. . Similar to the definition of "chip", SoC emphasizes more on a whole. In the field of integrated circuits, it is defined as: a system or product formed by combining multiple integrated circuits with specific functions on a chip, which contains a complete The hardware system and the embedded software it carries.

This means that on a single chip, the function of an electronic system can be completed, and this system used to require one or more circuit boards, as well as various electronic devices, chips and The interconnection lines work together to achieve this. Earlier, when we talked about integrated circuits, we mentioned the integration of buildings to bungalows, and 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 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 (see the introduction of the term "terminal 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 has two notable characteristics: one is the large scale of hardware, which is usually based on the IP design model; the other is the weight of software, which requires software and hardware co-design. It can be compared with 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, which is equivalent to improved energy efficiency in cities; on-chip interconnection is equivalent to urban expressways and high speeds. , Low power consumption, the information transmission 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 been moved to the city and took a subway ride. Or the BRT is here, which is obviously much faster; 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, It can be used to do something today, and it can be used to do another thing tomorrow, 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, as well as 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 application is 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.

Technology development

The development of integrated circuits has a history of 40 years. It has been advancing according to 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. SoC (System-on-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) is produced under the general direction of the transition to integrated system (IS). 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 the 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 the development of integrated circuits, the inevitable development of technology, and the future development of the IC industry.

Technical features

System integration of semiconductor process technology

Integration of software system and hardware system

Advantages

Reduce power consumption

Reduce volume

Increase system functions

Increase speed

Save cost

Exist Questions

Currently, the chip design industry is facing a series of challenges. System-on-chip SoC 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. has enabled the rapid development of system-level integration capabilities. The so-called SoC technology is a highly integrated and 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 using SoC technology to design application systems, all system circuits are integrated together except those external circuits or mechanical parts that cannot be integrated.

Core technology

System function integration is the core technology of SoC

In the traditional application electronic system design, it is necessary to control the entire system according to the functional modules required by the design. Synthesis, that is, find the corresponding integrated circuit according to the function required by the design, and then design the connection form and parameters of the selected circuit according to the technical index required by the design. 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 digitized, microcontrollers are often required, so the impact of distributed systems on the characteristics of circuit firmware must also be considered. Obviously, the realization of the traditional application electronic system adopts the integrated technology of distributed function.

For SoC, the design of 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 for the integration of the functional circuit, but for the circuit integration for the overall firmware implementation of the system, that is, the circuit integration of the system as a whole is performed using IP technology. Secondly, the final result of the circuit design is related to the IP function module and firmware characteristics, but basically has nothing to do with the way the circuit is divided on the PCB board 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 Asia Micro-circuit implementation technology, etc., in addition to embedded software transplantation, development and research, is an interdisciplinary emerging research field.

Design idea

Firmware integration is the basic design idea of ​​SoC

In traditional distributed integrated design technology, the firmware characteristics of the system are often difficult to achieve the optimal. The reason is that the distributed function synthesis technology is used. Under normal circumstances, 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 multiple application fields; 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 terms of I/O and control, so that general users can get as much development performance as possible. However, it is not easy for the application electronic system of customized circuit design to achieve the best, especially the firmware characteristics are quite dispersive.

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 it is easier to achieve the design requirements.

Basic structure

Embedded system is the basic structure of SoC

In the application electronic system designed with SoC technology, embedded structure can be easily realized . 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 hardware structure of the entire system. 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.

Design basis

IP is the design basis of SoC

Traditional application electronic design engineers face a variety of customized integrated circuits, and those using SoC technology Electronic system design engineers 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 Xichaou. It can be seen that SoC is a design technology based on IP modulesTechnology, IP is the foundation of SoC applications.

Design process

Different stages in SoC technology

Several stages in the design and application of electronic systems using 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 function design is completed, you can enter the IP synthesis stage. The task of the IP synthesis stage uses the 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 circuit simulation, the purpose is to check whether the circuit composed of the IP module can realize the design function and reach the corresponding design technical index. 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.

Design methodology

1. Design reuse technology

Millions of gate-scale system-on-chip designs cannot start from scratch In the beginning, the design should be built on a higher level. More use of IP multiplexing technology is needed. Only in this way can the design be completed quickly, ensure the success of the design, and obtain a low-cost SoC to meet market demand.

Design reuse is based on the core (CORE), which is to make various verified super macro cell module circuits into the core for future design and utilization. Core cores are usually divided into three types, one is called hard core, which has a physical layout connected to a specific process and has been verified by film casting tests. It can be directly called by the new design as a specific function module. The second type is soft core, which is written in hardware description language or C language for functional simulation. The third type is a firm core, which is developed on the basis of a soft core, and is a comprehensive soft core with a layout plan. When designing, the reuse method depends to a large extent on the solid core. The RTL-level description is combined with the specific standard cell library for logic synthesis optimization to form a gate-level netlist, and then the hard core required for the design is finally formed through the layout tool. This soft RTL synthesis method provides some design flexibility, which can be combined with specific applications, appropriately modify the description, and re-verify to meet specific application requirements. In addition, with the development of process technology, new libraries can also be used to re-synthesize, optimize, place and route, and re-verify to obtain hard cores under new process conditions. Using this method to realize the design reuse can increase the efficiency by 2-3 times compared with the traditional module design method. Therefore, the design reuse before the 0.35um process uses this RTL soft core.

2. Realization of integrated method

With the development of process technology, deep sub-micron (DSM) makes system-level chips larger and more complex. This kind of integrated method will encounter new problems, because as the process progresses to 0.18um or smaller sizes, it is not the gate delay but the interconnect line delay that needs to be handled accurately. Coupled with a clock frequency of hundreds of megabytes, the timing relationship between the signals is very strict, so it is difficult to use soft RTL synthesis methods to achieve the purpose of design reuse.

The system-level chip design based on the core core shifts the design method from circuit design to system design. The design focus will shift from today’s logic synthesis, gate-level layout and post-simulation to system-level simulation. Co-simulation of software and hardware, and physical design of several cores combined together. Forcing the design industry to polarize, the first is to turn to systems and use IP to design high-performance and highly complex dedicated systems. On the other hand, the design of the core core under the DSM step into the physical layer design, so that the DSM core core can be better and predictable.

3. Low-power design technology

Because the system-level chip works at a There are tens of watts or even hundreds of watts of power consumption. Huge power consumption brings problems to the use of packaging and reliability. Therefore, the design of reducing power consumption is an inevitable requirement for system-level chip design. In the design, we should start to reduce the power consumption of the chip from many aspects.

Application dynamics

On August 20, 2014, the domestic color TV giant Skyworth held a new product launch conference in Beijing with the theme of "Witness to the Odd G", releasing the world's first GLED in a high-profile manner television. The press conference was called a heavyweight. Not only did Skyworth Group's senior leaders attended all the meetings, but also the Director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Diao, as well as more than 160 domestic mainstream media and industry experts were invited.

At the meeting, Director Diao of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology delivered a speech. The content of the speech stated: Skyworth Group and Huawei HiSilicon have formed close cooperation partners with the project as a link, and successfully developed my country’s first independent research and development and successfully realized it. The mass-produced high-end smart TV chips have better chip performance than similar chips in the market, which is of great significance to changing the situation of my country's color TV industry lacking cores and screens and enhancing the core competitiveness of the electronic information industry!

Director Diao of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (2 photos)

The News Network reported on August 21, 2014: "Chinese local enterprise Skyworth and HiSilicon The smart TV SOC chip developed by Skyworth has been successfully developed and realized mass production for the first time. The core performance of the smart TV such as the system speed and decoding capability of the new Skyworth GLED equipped with this chip is at the leading level in the industry.” At the same time, Skyworth’s “Smart TV SOC chip research and development” The “Industrialization” project has already applied for the “Core electronic devices, high-end general-purpose chips and basic software products” national science and technology major project (referred to as the “nuclear high-tech major project”). Skyworth will work with HiSilicon in chip definition, chip verification, and chip integration In-depth cooperation in core areas such as machine R&D and industrialization. The first 4,000 new products of the Skyworth G8200 series equipped with this chip were launched on August 20, 2014.