System-on-a-Chip - the electronics for a complete product, contained on a single chip. This includes not only hardware components (computer on a chip) but all required ancillary electronics.

This could include the integration of:

-Ready made sub-circuits (IP)
-Digital/analog functions
-Sensors
-Choice of voltage
-Packages up to over 1000 connections
-Designs with over 1 million ASIC gates

A good picture of an SoC design is on the Cirrus Logic Web site along with information about the company's EP7211 Ultra-Low-Power SOC.

The benefits of SoC design include:

-Conservation of space (reduction in chip count)
-Improved performance (higher reliability)
-Lower memory requirements
-Greater design freedom (simpler logistics)

This in turn reduces cost for consumer applications and devices such as wireless phones, DVD players and digital televisions. SoCs are also used in IT applications such as graphics chips and routers.

These benefits also come with some challenges including:

-Larger design space
-More expense (global on-chip communication is expensive in terms of power/propagation delay)
-Increased prototype cost
-Correctness of complete system with multiple components
-A high level of debugging methodology

Testing of the products is also a challenge due to the fact that typical testing methods have been developed for specific specialty areas, whereas the SoC requirement includes all specialties, potentially on one platform.

Despite these difficulties, in July 2001 Frost & Sullivan reported that the SoC industry generated revenues of $4.4 billion in 2000. The company also estimated that this number would grow to $11.4 billion by 2003.