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In recent years, under the promotion of ZTE, Huawei, SMIC and other events, there are countless topics about "chip". Whenever the United States moves, the heat of chip topic increases one point. Every day, some people talk about chip and chip technology, Shouting to develop chip, but how much do they know about chip?
The English name of chip is Microchip, also known as microcircuit, microchip, integrated circuit. It is actually a general term for semiconductor component products.
Chip classification
There are many types of chips, which can be divided into analog chips and digital chips according to different processing signals.
In simple terms, analog chips use transistors to amplify, while digital analog chips use crystals to switch on and off. Specifically, analog chips are used to generate, amplify and process analog signals of various kinds, including analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) chips, amplifier chips, power management chips, PLL, etc. The difficulty of analog chip design is that there are too many non-ideal effects, which requires solid basic knowledge and rich experience, such as small signal analysis, time domain and frequency domain analysis and so on.
In contrast, digital chips are used to generate, amplify and process various digital signals. Digital chips generally carry out logic operations. CPU, memory chips and DSP chips are all digital chips. The difficulty of digital chip design is that the chip scale is large and the process requirements are complex, so it usually needs the cooperation of multiple teams.
According to the use of functions to classify, mainly CPU, GPU, FPGA, DSP, ASIC and so on.
CPU is the central processing unit, it as the computing and control core of the computer system, is the final execution unit of information processing and program running. CPU is the core hardware unit that controls and allocates all hardware resources (such as memory, input and output unit) of a computer and performs general operations.
GPU is the graphics processor, also known as display core, vision processor, display chip, is a kind of microprocessor specialized in personal computers, workstations, game consoles and some mobile devices (such as tablet computers, smart phones, etc.) to do image and graphics related operations.
FPGA is a further development of PAL, GAL and other programmable devices. It is a kind of semi-customized circuit in the field of ASIC, which not only solves the shortage of customized circuit, but also overcomes the shortcoming of limited gate circuit of original programmable device. FPGA can be programmed infinitely, with low latency, pipelined parallelism and data parallelism (GPU only has data parallelism), the strongest real-time performance and the highest flexibility.
DSP is the chip that can realize digital signal processing technology. The internal structure of DSP chip is Harvard structure that separates program and data, with special hardware multiplier, pipelined operation is widely used, and special DSP instruction is provided, which can be used to quickly realize various digital signal processing algorithms.
ASIC is often said to be the application-specific integrated circuit, it should be specific user requirements and specific electronic system needs and design, manufacturing. At present, using CPLD (complex programmable logic device) and FPGA (field programmable logic array) to carry out ASIC design is one of the most popular ways. Compared to general purpose integrated circuits, ASics are smaller, lighter, lower power consumption, higher reliability, higher performance, greater security, and further reduced cost.
Chips can also be divided according to the manufacturing process
This classification is also common, and the chip manufacturing process is now the focus of attention, the more advanced the process, the higher the performance level of the chip. Usually often hear 5nm chip, 7nm chip, 14nm chip and so on, are divided according to this process. The current process technology can reach 5nm, the next step is 3nm. Generally speaking, the more advanced the manufacturing process, the higher the chip transistor integration, the smaller the core area, the lower the cost, and the stronger the performance, but this statement is for a single chip, when the overall consideration is different.
According to different application scenarios, chips can be classified into civil (consumer), industrial, automotive and military grade chips
Their main difference is in the working temperature range. Military level chip, because of the complicated environment of the war, facing the use of electronic devices to enough durability, such as missiles, satellites, tanks, aircraft carrier the electronic components inside, take out any a part is the most advanced, the leading industrial grade 10 years, leading commercial grade 20 years or so, the most expensive precision are reflected in the military level, Its operating temperature is -- 55℃ -- +150℃; Automotive chip operating temperature range -- 40℃ -- +125℃; The industrial grade chip is slightly lower than the automotive grade, the price is second, the precision is second, the working temperature range is -- 40℃ -- +85℃; Civilian/consumer chips are the ones that are traded in the market, computers, phones, almost everything you see is commercial. However, the product quality is also different, for example, Microsoft chip is the military grade in the commercial grade, the cheapest price, the most common most practical, working temperature range in 0℃ - +70℃.
The English name of chip is Microchip, also known as microcircuit, microchip, integrated circuit. It is actually a general term for semiconductor component products.
Chip classification
There are many types of chips, which can be divided into analog chips and digital chips according to different processing signals.
In simple terms, analog chips use transistors to amplify, while digital analog chips use crystals to switch on and off. Specifically, analog chips are used to generate, amplify and process analog signals of various kinds, including analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) chips, amplifier chips, power management chips, PLL, etc. The difficulty of analog chip design is that there are too many non-ideal effects, which requires solid basic knowledge and rich experience, such as small signal analysis, time domain and frequency domain analysis and so on.
In contrast, digital chips are used to generate, amplify and process various digital signals. Digital chips generally carry out logic operations. CPU, memory chips and DSP chips are all digital chips. The difficulty of digital chip design is that the chip scale is large and the process requirements are complex, so it usually needs the cooperation of multiple teams.
According to the use of functions to classify, mainly CPU, GPU, FPGA, DSP, ASIC and so on.
CPU is the central processing unit, it as the computing and control core of the computer system, is the final execution unit of information processing and program running. CPU is the core hardware unit that controls and allocates all hardware resources (such as memory, input and output unit) of a computer and performs general operations.
GPU is the graphics processor, also known as display core, vision processor, display chip, is a kind of microprocessor specialized in personal computers, workstations, game consoles and some mobile devices (such as tablet computers, smart phones, etc.) to do image and graphics related operations.
FPGA is a further development of PAL, GAL and other programmable devices. It is a kind of semi-customized circuit in the field of ASIC, which not only solves the shortage of customized circuit, but also overcomes the shortcoming of limited gate circuit of original programmable device. FPGA can be programmed infinitely, with low latency, pipelined parallelism and data parallelism (GPU only has data parallelism), the strongest real-time performance and the highest flexibility.
DSP is the chip that can realize digital signal processing technology. The internal structure of DSP chip is Harvard structure that separates program and data, with special hardware multiplier, pipelined operation is widely used, and special DSP instruction is provided, which can be used to quickly realize various digital signal processing algorithms.
ASIC is often said to be the application-specific integrated circuit, it should be specific user requirements and specific electronic system needs and design, manufacturing. At present, using CPLD (complex programmable logic device) and FPGA (field programmable logic array) to carry out ASIC design is one of the most popular ways. Compared to general purpose integrated circuits, ASics are smaller, lighter, lower power consumption, higher reliability, higher performance, greater security, and further reduced cost.
Chips can also be divided according to the manufacturing process
This classification is also common, and the chip manufacturing process is now the focus of attention, the more advanced the process, the higher the performance level of the chip. Usually often hear 5nm chip, 7nm chip, 14nm chip and so on, are divided according to this process. The current process technology can reach 5nm, the next step is 3nm. Generally speaking, the more advanced the manufacturing process, the higher the chip transistor integration, the smaller the core area, the lower the cost, and the stronger the performance, but this statement is for a single chip, when the overall consideration is different.
According to different application scenarios, chips can be classified into civil (consumer), industrial, automotive and military grade chips
Their main difference is in the working temperature range. Military level chip, because of the complicated environment of the war, facing the use of electronic devices to enough durability, such as missiles, satellites, tanks, aircraft carrier the electronic components inside, take out any a part is the most advanced, the leading industrial grade 10 years, leading commercial grade 20 years or so, the most expensive precision are reflected in the military level, Its operating temperature is -- 55℃ -- +150℃; Automotive chip operating temperature range -- 40℃ -- +125℃; The industrial grade chip is slightly lower than the automotive grade, the price is second, the precision is second, the working temperature range is -- 40℃ -- +85℃; Civilian/consumer chips are the ones that are traded in the market, computers, phones, almost everything you see is commercial. However, the product quality is also different, for example, Microsoft chip is the military grade in the commercial grade, the cheapest price, the most common most practical, working temperature range in 0℃ - +70℃.
