What is system on a chip aka SoC in smartphones?

Tech geeks love to talk about processing power and chips, be it from PCs to the latest smartphones. In the previous couple of years, the term "system-on-chip" (SoC) has been thrown around quite a bit, yet there's tons of confusion around what an SoC is in the first place. There are multiple components within any computing system to handle different processing tasks and permit all the hardware and software to interact. Over the years, technology and manufacturing advances have allowed these components to shrink while becoming more powerful, reducing an outsized number of chips with specialized purposes to fewer ones that handle multiple functions. In short, an SoC (System on a chip)  is the ultimate level of integration - when all parts and functions of a system are often combined into one chip.

What is SoC aka System On A Chip In Smartphones?

So, today we are leaving within the era of smartphones and tablets. And within the past decade technology has been evolved such a lot that using these smartphones and tablets we will do most of the things that we are wont to do with desktop and laptop. So using this smartphone and tablet does stuff like gaming, web browsing, photo editing, creating documents, media streaming, and lots more things. And yet these devices are quite compact compared to the desktop and laptop. And yet they contain most of the parts which you see inside the desktop and laptop. So, most of the components you simply see inside the laptop or desktop's motherboard are integrated inside one smartphone. So, the whole system which is required to run a smartphone is integrated into one chip. which is understood as an SoC or System on Chip. And because of the leading manufacturers like Qualcomm, Samsung, Apple, and MediaTek, it's possible to integrate all the components inside one chip. And sometimes if you see the dimensions of this technique on Chip, they're as small because of the size of a coin. So, the SoC is essentially a microcircuit, with all the parts of a Computer on one chip. The SoC defines a mobile device and contains the processor, the graphics chips, the cellular radios, mobile RAM, Image processors, and audio/video decoders.

The list below contains the most common components that you will find inside a smartphone System-on-a-Chip. We’re going to cover a few of the most important ones later on in this article.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) 

Image Processing Unit (ISP) 

Digital Signal Processor (DSP)

Neural Processing Unit (NPU) 

Video encoder/decoder

Modems 

Combining multiple components into one chip saves on space, cost, and power consumption. SoCs hook up with other components, like cameras, a display, ram, storage, and many other things. Essentially, a system on a chip aka SoC is the brain of your smartphone that handles everything. 

Conclusion

It's easy to urge trapped in speeds and therefore the number of cores, but there is a lot more happening inside your smartphone's SoC. Efficiency and battery life determine what quite a battery each device needs and its size and weight. New features mean devices can support value-added functions like on-the-fly image processing, voice and gesture commands, augmented reality, and far more. 

I hope you understood what SoC aka system on a chip in smartphones? And if you liked what you read, then do not forget to like, share and comment.

A system on a chip aka SoC is a circuit that contains all the components 

 embedded on a single chip to run smartphone/laptop smoothly.