From the very beginning

Long ago, back in 1958, a certain John McCarthy wrote a list processing language called LISP. He wrote it because he was fond of creating artificial intelligence, and he needed a suitable language.

Since then there has been progress, of course, but there is still no artificial intelligence. I don’t understand how to design and create such a complex system as the brain and my self-conceit can only be reassured by the fact that I’m not the only one: no one has yet figured out how to make this greatest quine in the history of mankind. But they will make and create, finally, cyborgs.


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When creating artificial intelligence with one lisp, you will not manage: you need to run it on something and the iron also does not stand still. And, precisely here, in my opinion, the progress is much more noticeable. It is always like that when you try to compare the progress in practical and theoretical parts.

With iron, people came up with a clever thing called system on a chip (System On a Chip, SoC). It would seem that the processor itself and the processor, well, on a crystal and on a crystal, and after all, according to the principle of operation, this is almost the brain. It (the brain) is a biological system on a chip: in our brain there is a central processor, a graphics processor, a memory management module, and the memory itself is both short-term and long-term, and the input-output system.

As we all know, a breakthrough in circuitry happened thanks to a transistor, but a new stage came in 1978, when Intel released the 8086 processor , the progenitor of our happy present (by the way, it was believed that he was capable of controlling a traffic light, but not a computer ). But it is much more interesting that two years before that, Intel created the first system on a chip. It was "only" electronic watch Microma LCD watch (link with photos). And inside they had a system on a chip called the Intel 5810 CMOS chip .



Progress on the clock did not stop, technical processes were improving and improving, and the transistors became less and less. In place of large vacuum tubes, transistors made by 1.5–1 micrometer technology came in (if we put 200 in a row, they would just take a millimeter on the ruler). For this technology in Intel in 1985 made the third-generation processor 80386 (by the way, did you know that 80386 produced not only Intel, but also AMD? :)). Noteworthy is also the 1990 model 386SL, which combines a processor, a bus controller, an operating and external cache memory controller on a single chip. And in 1995, the 386EX appeared, in the crystal of which they placed another interrupt controller, timers, counters, and JTAG testing logic, which is still used today for firmware and quality control of microcircuits. Despite its insignificant, by today's standards, 25 MHz, the 386EX processor was built into the satellites. Such a system on a crystal in orbit turned out.



In 2007, Intel announced its next SoC solution, Intel EP80579 , codenamed Tolapai . On a single chip, a processor with a frequency of 600 MHz to 1200 MHz was combined, a memory controller and I / O controllers, and a QuickAssist for hardware encryption was used as a killer feature in some variations on the chip, and it was used, for example, in VPN solutions. The Intel site has a great presentation that I really liked (well, how much a normal person might like a presentation in general).



The most modern system on a chip from Intel is made on 32nm technology and is called the Atom Z2460 , codenamed Medfield . Already today on Medfield there is a prototype of a smartphone about which a good post was recently written and very soon it should go on sale.

Modernity

Systems on a crystal are not easy at all, and there are already more than one species of them. For example, there are multiprocessor systems on a chip . There is a special case of SoC called a network on a chip - with the current process technology, it is not at all necessary to make a network PCI card, a small chip on the motherboard is enough. And a radio on a chip that combines both a receiver and a transmitter on a single chip and takes up very little space compared to previous solutions.

From the user's point of view, there is nothing special about SoC. Just think, there used to be a big board with a bunch of multi-colored pieces, and now there are few of these multi-colored pieces. Great difference. But the benefit is obvious: due to the fact that everything is located inside a single crystal, power consumption is significantly reduced (this is especially important for mobile and autonomous solutions) and heat dissipation, which means you can do with either passive cooling or a weak cooler. Well, the price will eventually get lower and lower, which is also always nice.

The manufacturer is not so simple. The more complex something is, the more difficult it is to do something. If it’s still something small, then it’s not easy at all. SoC combines a lot of completely different things that are traditionally carried throughout the motherboard, and therefore need an original approach to design, allowing you to have a large number of different types of components in a small package, and so that they do not interfere with each other during operation.

An increasing percentage of defects, which inevitably arises during the transition to a higher level of technical process, is added to the design difficulties. However, Intel is already building a factory Fab42 , which will manufacture processors not by the “antediluvian” 32nm technical process, but by 14nm! Then in the SoC it will be possible to place even more transistors and thereby increase their performance. What then happens with conventional microprocessors, scary to think. Watch out, Moore's law!

Of course, Intel is not the only manufacturer of systems on a chip: there are a lot of them, and among them are such well-known brands like Atheros, ARM Holdings, Broadcom, Marvell Technology Group, Nokia, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Sharp and others.

Near future

Systems on a chip will replace modern microprocessors in the same way that microprocessors have replaced vacuum tubes — it's just a matter of time. And there, you see, and Terminator will be collected.

Already, SoC can be found everywhere, for example, in a wristwatch. Although who is wearing a wristwatch now? Look, better, on your smartphone. If it works on Android, Meego or iOS, there is a system on a chip inside. Look at your router or adsl modem - and there inside the SoC. Player? And in him too. Yes, any microcontroller (and even all of us, our favorite arduinka) is a system on a chip.

SoC is already everywhere. While they occupy a niche of devices that do not require high performance, but this is just a matter of time. I look forward to the day when I no longer need to carry a heavy laptop with me (no, I do not want a computer in the cloud), but rather a phone, a keyboard to which I will connect via bluetooth, and a monitor via WiDi, and performance of this I will have enough phone for everything.