# Big Picture

*(circa Q1 2012)*

The generic term "System on a Chip" refers to the fact that the CPU and many
"peripherals" (USB, ethernet, memory controller, GPU) are integraded into a
single package instead of being distributed across a motherboard via a
northbridge and southbridge. There still needs to be external analog and
digital circuitry for most "connectivity" interfaces like USB or ethernet to
provide level conversion, isolation, etc. Notably, RAM is not usually
integraded into the chip, and the large parallel bus to the RAM chips must be
routed very carefully. Some newer chips (popular circa 2010?) include "package
on package" technology where the RAM chip is right on top of the SoC to make
routing easier (eg, iPhones, RaspberryPI).

The establishment players for mobile ARM SoCs are TI (OMAP), Qualcomm
([Snapdragon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapdragon_(System_on_Chip))), not
regular ARM), Samsung ([Exynos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exynos))), Marvell
(Armada, Armada XP, )

The establishment players for MIPS SoCs are Broadcom and Marvell (Kirkwood).

[http://www.quora.com/What-ARM-SoC-families-currently-support-PCIe-and-which-ones-have-PCIe-support-planned](What ARM SoC families currently support PCIe, and which ones have PCIe support planned?) (quora, 2011)

# ARM

### Freescale i.MX6

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.MX#i.MX6x_series>

40nm process. 1.2GHz Cortex A9, up to 4 cores, includes vidoe processing
"stuff". Single PCIe, GigE, SATA, 64bit RAM bus, $10-20 price range, available
summer 2012? Sabre Lite DevKits available to some? 
[linaro link with specs](https://wiki.linaro.org/Boards/MX6QSabreLite)

$69 development board (modular) <http://wandboard.org>

<http://www.hiapad.com/>

This chip *should* be relatively easy to source in smaller quantities (eg, 1k)
on the open market, and there are already several development kits being sold.

Prices!

    i.MX6 Solo 1GHz: ~$11 @ 10k+
    i.MX6 Dual 1GHz: ~$23 @ 1k+
    i.MX6 Dual lite: ~$16 @ 1k+

    Part Number  Product Description  2013  @ 10Ku
    MCIMX6S5DVM10AA  i.MX 6Solo Consumer  - 1GHz w/ VPU&GPU  ~$11
    MCIMX6U5DVM10AA  i.MX 6DualLite Consumer  - 1GHz w/ VPU&GPU  ~$16
    MCIMX6D5EYM10AB  i.MX 6Dual Consumer Ext. Temp - 1GHz w/ VPU&GPU  ~$21
    MCIMX6D5EYM12AB  i.MX 6Dual Consumer Ext. Temp ? 1.2GHz w/ VPU&GPU  ~$23
    MCIMX6D7CVT08AB  i.MX 6Dual Industrial  Temp ? 800MHz w/ VPU&GPU  ~$24
    MCIMX6Q5EYM10AB  i.MX 6Quad Consumer Ext. Temp - 1GHz w/ VPU&GPU  ~$26
    MCIMX6Q5EYM12AB  i.MX 6Quad Consumer Ext. Temp ? 1.2GHz w/ VPU&GPU  ~$29
    MCIMX6Q7CVT08AB  i.MX 6Quad Industrial  Temp ? 800MHz w/ VPU&GPU  ~$30

### Marvell Armada XP

[Marvell MV78200](http://www.marvell.com/embedded-processors/discovery-innovation/applications.jsp)

 - 4 GigE ports
 - 2x 1GHz armv5 chips
 - 2x SATA
 - 2x PCIe x4
 - "$60 or less" (?)

Samples available from 
[nu horizons](http://www.nuhorizons.com/featuredproducts/portal/samples/January_2012.asp)

Apple experimenting with these chip? [arstechnica article](http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/09/support-for-quad-core-arm-cpu-shows-up-in-apples-xcode-but-why.ars)

### TI OMAP4

PandaBoard's OMAP4460:

 - up to 1.5GHz dual-core Cortex-A9

### Calxeda "EnergyCore"

Going for massively parallelized market, with hundreds of cors in a rack. 

ECX-1000 is 4 Cortex-A9 at 1.1-1.4ghz, 5watts with 4gb DDR3 RAM. SATA and PCIe,
72bitwidth DDR3 controller (32bit addressing), up to 5 10GigE ports with
"routing fabric". Hard FPU.


### Allwinner A10

A Chinese-made fast+cheap ($5 in volume) tablet-oriented chip. 

 - 1.5GHz ARM Cortex A8, with MALI GPU
 - "$5 in volume"
 - NAND flash controller
 - 4 SDIO interfaces
 - SATA-II (3 gb/sec... bit?)
 - 10/100 Ethernet

Links:

 - <http://elinux.org/Hack_A10_devices>
 - <http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/>
 - <http://www.wits-tech.com/pages/board.jsp>
 - SDK and tools docs <http://www.cnx-software.com/2011/12/28/allwinner-a10a1x-processor-resources-development-board-and-sdk/>

### Nvidia Tegra

Has PCIe?

### ST SPEAr1340

[pre-production](http://www.st.com/internet/mcu/product/251211.jsp):

 - 2x Cortex-A9 cores up to 600MHz
 - 32bit DDR3-1066 memory bus, up to 1GB addressable
 - 1x GigE port
 - 1x PCIe 2.0 lane

# MIPS

Ingenic jz4760B

# x86

# PowerPC

AppliedMicro APM86290

# Other

 - [Rhombus Tech CPU eval list](http://rhombus-tech.net/evaluated_cpus/)

 - [Marvell Avanta](http://www.marvell.com/broadband/) ethernet switch SoCs

 - Marvell Prestera EX/MX enterprise packet processors

 - Freescale QorIQ DPAA

 - TI [OMAP5 overview](http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/TI-OMAP5430-and-OMAP5432-CES-demos/)

 - TI Sitara AM389x has PCIe? $40+ in 1k quantities?
    - 1x PCIe
    - up to 1.5GHz Cortex-A8
    - 2x 32bit DDR3-1600 interfaces
    - GigE ethernet
    - 1031FCBGA package (1k pins?)

For price comparison, "Atheros is currently in volume production with the
AR5007AP-G with a list price of $12.50 in 10-k piece lots."