System Integration Leads to MegaFunction Gadgets

nanotrends writes "The IEEE Spectrum is running a piece entitled 'Moore's Law Meets Its Match', about the system-on-package (SOP) approach to technology. The (SOP) approach combines Integrated Circuits (ICs) with micrometer-scale thin-film versions of discrete components, and it embeds everything in a new type of package so small that eventually handhelds will become anything from multi-to megafunction devices. This integration is actually developing at a rate faster than Moore's law." From the article: "SOP technology represents a radically different approach to systems. It shrinks bulky circuit boards with their many components and makes them nearly disappear. In effect, SOP sets up a new law for system integration. It holds that as the components shrink and the boards all but disappear, the component density will double every year or so, and the number of system functions in an SOP package will increase in the same proportion."

Comments

Yeah

[Anonymous Crowhead]

I liked my cell phone better when it just made phone calls. Smaller is better, but like Windows and even Linux these days, you shouldn't just cram stuff in because you can.

Re:Yeah

[LoRdTAW]

I agree with you somewhat but it all comes down to what functions are practicle. I used to have a camera phone but the pictures it took were crap compared to my 4MP canon cam. Now I just have a simple phone that I have a few custom ringers I made on it as well as a wall paper, phone book and clock. It has gps but I prefer gps on a larger screen.

My thing is if they got camera/multimedia phones right like:
-High quality camera with at leat 2MP or 1600x1200
-removable flash card that stores the pictures
-external screen that acts like a viewfinder, great for taking pictures of yourself with someone
-simple usb connectivity
-an mp3 player that also works off the flash card that would work on a bluetooth stereo headset that auto pauses the music on a call. I could ride my bike with my phone in my bag listening to some tunes and take a call easily without fumbling with the phone or wires all over.
-maybe a video service BUT it has to be based on open standars and can to connect to any video server even one I might host. Also simple video recording to the flash card that can record longer then 15 seconds.
-good 3 + day standby time.

Hell there might be such a phone now but im not that on top of those things.

Re:Yeah

[daniel422]

Actually smaller is worse. It's cheaper, yes, becasue it's less silicon area, but the smaller you get, the more issues you have in creating the chip, and coupling issues with high-speed lines in closer proximity, the less reliable it tends to be.
The semiconductor industry is also continuously updating silicon to justify keeping prices the same level or higher. Since silicon cost goes down once its been created, that's the only way to increase ASP on silicon -- add more features in the same space.
Thus we see cell phones that continue to get smaller and smaller, with more features, yet less reliability.
Hopefully the continued integration process we see in cell phone ICs will provide more reliability by having many systems (now integrated) be made in one fab at one time, thus decreasing fab process differences.

Re:Yeah

[zippthorne]

Frankly, if they're going to put a camera in it, i'd rather have a high quality 640x480 resolution. Pictures of that size are absolutely fine for most purposes if they are taken with a low noise imager with appropriate optics and aren't compressed as all get-up. If all you want is to share some cameos on the web or print off some 4x6s for the family, a good 640x480 is actually a lot better than a poorly designed 5MP camera.

but wouldn't you rather have a really really tiny phone which you can add those things through equally tiny modular attachments if you so desire?

Moore's law = all technology ever?

[Spazntwich]

So what I'm to gather is that a new technology advances at rates different from ones set forth in arbitrary "laws" relating to different technologies?

AMAZING

Nothing says "megafunction gadget"...

[sczimme]

Nothing says "megafunction gadget" like a monochrome Palm, a nut, and an old motherboard.

Is this the next installment in the MacGyver Challenge?

Integate CPU + DRAM + Flash

[seanadams.com]

This will be a huge boon for semi-custom embedded apps.

Many embedded processors have some typical complement of flash memory and SDRAM which is about the same for every app, and which takes up half of more of the CPU's pin count. The chips can't be combined on one die, because the yields and economies of scale would go down, and they're different processes.

But combine the dies in a small package and you get the best of both world. Less packaging material and lower pin count == lower cost, easier to design in, and more reliable (at some expense in flexibility). It's not a new idea but it's great to see it catching on.

Re:Integate CPU + DRAM + Flash

[sc0p3]

Custom application definately, but the point of the article is that it combines *discrete* components, resistors, capacitors, inductors and other nontransistor widgets that go into circuit design

CPU, DRAM and Flash are all intensively transistor based devices.

However custom applications for radio transmitter chips (as in TFA) is a awesome example. Combine all RF circuitry into a single chip will make my job multitudes easier. I designed implants for animal testing and the cap's and resistors were 90% of the implant(for this co. www.telemetryresearch.com)

Re:Integate CPU + DRAM + Flash

[MoxFulder]

Eh... what??? It's already been done, been available for years. Nearly all the popular PIC microcontrollers and the AVR microcontrollers have Flash, CPU, and static RAM on chip.

Granted, those are 8-bit processors with no more than 64k or so of Flash, and no more than a few Kb of SRAM, but they're surprisingly powerful and useful. You can get 'em in clock rates of 50 MHz or more and all kinds of nifty on-chip peripherals are available... my favorites are the on-chip ADC and USB controllers! Plus the whole thing can be had for about $3, and Microchip (which makes the PIC) is *amazingly* generous in giving away free samples to anyone who asks (I've gotten so many of them I actually feel a bit guilty!).

You *ARE* correct that having external address and data lines does take up a lot of pins on a microprocessor. Having the memory onboard with a microcontroller is very nice, greatly reduces pin count. My favorite AVR microcontroller is available in a 28-pin DIP package, which is great for prototyping, and up to 25 of those pins can be used for general purpose digital I/O. Handy that!

Frankly, I don't see a great advantage to combining something like a 32-bit ARM CPU with a few megs of Flash and SDRAM in one package. The development of those products is inevitably more expensive and complex than for simpler 8-bit embedded systems. And as you say, different products are required to produce them. Most of the integrated applications seem to go in a slightly different direction: for example, many companies today sell a wireless-router-on-a-chip which combines a MIPS or ARM CPU, ethernet switch, DRAM controller, and 802.11g transceiver. Just add Flash, DRAM, and baseband wireless :-)

Reliability?

[nonother]

The more functions the more apt it is to crash. For a computer or a PDA to do lots and lots of functions that's great, but if they start putting these into phones or GPS units, or even worse - cars then it's just going to start degrading reliability.

Re:Reliability?

[cnettel]

I would distrust wiring between discrete devices more than integrated functionality. Really, how often have you seen a chip or board malfunction due to not being seated properly, versus actual error in the chip itself?

Any generalized statements about crashing are just that, gross generalizations. There is no reason to make components interdependent, just because they are integrated. The opposite is true, related components make sense to integrate, but then it's just a matter of what else you might be able to get into that package. It may even have its own connection to the power supply through separate pins, if you're that paranoid.

SOP package?

[Have Blue]

A worthy successor to "IP protocol" or "ATM machine".

Gigafunction

[Doc Ruby]

Wake me when they make a display that doubles as a scanner, and redoubles as a full-spectrum smart antenna. An FPGA CPU that reconfigures per active process. And a fuelcell I can sip with a chaser.

The real problem is the interface.

[khasim]

If they can make the guts of a phone so small that they can put 10 of them inside a case that is just big enough for me to comfortably dial, that's great.

The real problem is that there isn't room for different interfaces on that box.

The interface for a phone is different than the interface on your iPod. So even though you can cram the guts from both of them in the same physical box, you cannot do so while maintaining the interface of each.

The same with adding a camera to them. The same with adding a PDA. The same with adding a game machine. It's really all about the interface (once you've solve the reliability issues). And right now, there isn't any way to get different physical interfaces on the device.

Integration stinks

[CatWrangler]

A good example is the tv sets with dvd and vcr players built in. It's a nice package, but if your dvd busts, you have to give up your tv to get it fixed. Integration is nice, but it comes at a price. I would rather have nodules that are interchangable, flexible than everything in one package. You can have it all, or you can have nothing. Not a good trade-off.

Law of Accelerating Returns

[smackdotcom]

Interesting that this is the sort of thing that Ray Kurzweil predicted. Kurzweil's generalization of Moore's law is the sort of thing that I suspect is largely correct, though how exactly it manifests itself is something that will be interesting to observe. I recommend familiarizing yourself with his thinking if you have any interest in the future of technology and society, and in particular look into buying his latest book. Disclosure note: I have neither affiliation nor even connection to Kurzweil, I simply find his thinking on the issues of future technology to be both fascinating and compelling.

We're going to see ever more rapid acceleration of technology at an increasing rate that will one day leave Moore's Law in the dust, and the impact on society promises to be phenomenal. Just the notion of ever-more-sophisticated portable gadgetry is already altering society in very interesting ways (and yes, some of those alterations are annoying or inconvenient--oblivious cell phones users and so forth). But with the way these gadgets are going, we're going to rapidly outstrip the imaginations of Star Trek writers in terms of the capability and utility of such ubiquitous and powerful devices. I look forward to having the electronic equivalent of a Swiss Army knife (and yes, I'm sure there's going to have to be some clever work done on improving the user interface on such units--but there are inventive types out there working on that sort of thing). It all promises to be very interesting.

jesus christ, what a bunch of goddamn luddites

[bunions]

30 comments, all about how this technology is worthless and how what we have right now is just fine.

I for one would enjoy a fun-size pc, cellphones the size of a hearing aid, a pda wristwatch and tiny headmounted displays I fit in the corner of my glasses. The rest of you can continue to enjoy your breadbox-sized pcs and your feelings of self-righteousness.

Re:jesus christ, what a bunch of goddamn luddites

[OnanTheBarbarian]

You are correct. I am perenially amazed by the sheer lack of informed responses when there is a marginally technical, serious article on here.

We got:

1. "stuff is too complex already, what we need is better UI design". This is a non sequiteur - better UI design and clarity of function is an orthogonal issue to what this article talks about. It's as if the technology was going to be used to do nothing but assemble every last portable gadget into one poorly-designed mega-unit.

2. "this is all about integrating such and so a microcontroller, SOC and flash memory": it's too hard to read the article and realize that we're talking about something a little more general, so let's just drop a couple vaguely-informed sounding buzzwords in there to sound superior. Read the damn articles, guys: Capacitors. Waveguides. Antennas. Crystals. Not just some gates.

3. Some home-spun wisdom about how putting more functions in things makes them more unreliable. Yes, that's right, even since the 4004 computer chips have just been crashing more and more often. That's because there's no such discipline as computer engineering or electrical engineering. No-one has ever thought about these issues before today, on Slashdot. Perhaps one day a discipline might spring up around how to assemble digital and analog logic in a way that somehow encapsulates the properties of individual components.

4. A couple random breathless quotes about Vinge and Kurzweill; with the usual level of irrelevance. Hey, at least these guys aren't sneering.

I was faintly hoping for someone who knows more about this sort of stuff to analyze the very PR-ish seeming nature of the article - what's hype, what's reality. Instead, it's the usual undergraduate-level bluffing and gibberish.

Moore's Law only applies to transistors on an IC

[sidfaiwu]

It looks like the other 90% of devices have been largely neglectic up till now. The fact that the size of devices will shrink at a rate faster than Moore's Law might suggest that the rest of a device is just catching up with ICs after a late start.

This is new?

[mikalveli]

Hustler has been talking about MegaFunction gadgets for years.

The day is coming...

[suitepotato]

Sometime in 2013...

"Hon? Yeah, me here. Hospital waiting room actually. I think I really screwed up the instructions with that new cell phone. Well, Janie tried to call her friend Jennifer, and the toaster exploded in Sean's face. I tried to call 911 and had to sit through Eyes Wide Shut 2, then listen to Basil Poledouris ring tones for ten minutes and answer three web surveys. The doctors think they can reattach most of Sean's scalp and one of his eyes. Janie is fine though. She grabbed the phone, screamed 'nervouse breakdown voice command' into it and it tranquilized her. Do you know if it can make Shirley Temples? Hello? Oh, I'm sorry... I thought you were my husband... International Space Station you say? Could you connect me with 555-"

Well, it looks like we're finally on track

[ScrewMaster]

for Vernor Vinge's Singularity.

Re:I can't wait!

[kadathseeker]

I dunno, Pentium 4s use alot of juice.

Powerful

[QuickFox]

TFA describes a device the size of a credit card:

It could include a home computer, a cellphone, environmental and other sensors, a health monitoring device, and a satellite TV receiver, to name just some possibilities.

They forgot to mention that it also doubles as a soldering iron.

-- --
  Terrorists can destroy our trains and buildings, but they can't destroy our rights and our freedom. Only we and our lawmakers can destroy that.

The near-term interface may be a touch screen.

[VernonNemitz]

Cell phones don't have to be as small as they are; the hand-set size of ancient rotary-dial phones was that size for a reason.
Well, if that size was used as a grip behind the body of the unit (with various hardware inside it, of course), then the face of the unit could be a fairly decent-sized touch-screen.
It can even be a decently low-power screen, once companies like this one and this one and this one finish their R&D in things like full-color and size-scaling.

I'd also like to mention that There was a buzz-phrase a number of years ago, "wafer scale integration", and I posted my own thoughts about it
here, in Nov 2003.
While they might not be using silicon as the substrate for this modern version of WSI, I have little doubt that something like what I described is what they are doing. Perhaps I should seek a royalty... :)