System-on-a-Chip
When the most important components, or even all the components of a system are combined on one single chip, it is called a system-on-a-chip. The most important part of such is the main processor, no matter if it’s an 8bit- or QuadCore-processor, the market serves everything you can imagine. Sometimes also other processors, for instance for graphics or for decoding and controlling audio data in smart phones, are soldered. The next piece is the RAM, which is integrated via one or more memory chips. All internal components are connected via the system bus (for transmitting data between CPU, RAM, Cache) and the peripheral bus (for USB amongst others).
Application fields of SoC
SoCs are mostly used in the field of mobile devices and applications and in the control and automation technology (for instance in washing machines or the industrial automation).
Advantages of SoCs
Due to the special architecture, a system on a chip on one hand saves up an enormous amount of space, so that they can be used almost everywhere not matter how small a space is. On the other hand expenses can be saved. Furthermore, a system on a chip has a lower power consumption.
Nvidia Tegra SoC has it all
As already mentioned, the TEGRA 2, which we released in 2018, is the first (and at the moment the only) system among all the spo-comm Mini-PCs that is SoC based. Or more precisely, it is based on an Nvidia SoC-chip. It integrates all that is needed for applications in the digital signage field: An 8GB RAM, a 32GB eMMC Flash, the namesake Nvidia Tegra X2 CPU, as well as a LAN- and WiFi-module. And everything fits into the housing with dimensions of only 160 x 132 x 51 mm (W x D x H). With the TEGRA 2 it is not only possible to play content in a resolution of 4K@60Hz on two display at once. Thanks to the 256 integrated CUDA cores, the TEGRA 2 is also capable of deep learning applications and for real time calculations and video processing in the automobile field.
