SoCs

Revision 3 as of 2010-06-16 13:28:27

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The term SoC stands for system-on-a-chip. Unlike the x86 architecture, where the processor and the various peripheral controllers are on different chips (North-bridge, south-bridge, etc.), SoCs integrated these onto a single chip.

Wikipedia 1 defines it as thus:

System-on-a-chip or system on chip (SoC or SOC) refers to integrating all components of a computer  or other electronic system into a single integrated circuit (chip). It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions – all on a single chip substrate. A typical application is in the area of embedded systems.