Open In App Sign In

System-on-Chip (SoC) +2

What is the difference between a

microcontroller and a system on a chip (SoC)?

Ad by Arm

Introduction to system on chip design education kit.

Lecture slides for teaching how to build SoCs around Arm Cortex-M0 &
Cortex-M3 processors. Learn more.

Learn More

5 ANSWERS

Mark Dove, former Scuba Instructor at PADI (2007-2016)

Answered 10w ago · Author has 195 answers and 78.2k answer views

Originally Answered: Whats the difference between a micro-controller and a system on a chip
(SOC)?

Very generally they both have a microprocessor, memory and lots of input
and output built into a single device, but the microcontroller ‘s IO is quite
low level and can be used for talking to all sorts of other devices using
UARTs, SPI, I2C etc. Whereas the SOC usually isn't so configurable but does
include higher level IO such as HDMI for displays, USB, and generally most
things you would need in order to run a high level OS like Linux.

This by no means a cut and dried distinction, for example there are plenty
of microcontrollers that include USB, and in fact nearly all can be made to
interface to USB given the right software. Quite often a microcontroller
involves you building your application with lots of software libraries or
tweaking reference examples that would just be preconfigured peripherals
on a SOC.

139 views

Sponsored by StreamingVideoProvider

Looking to sell your videos on YouTube?

Easy step by step guide on how to use YouTube to sell your niche
training videos and make money.
 Start Now Open In App Sign In

RELATED QUESTIONS (MORE ANSWERS BELOW)

What is the system on a chip (SoC)? How is it related to embedded

systems? Does it involve programming?
523 Views

What is the difference between distributed systems and embedded

systems?
5 Views

What is the difference between a microprocessor and a microcontroller?

117 Views

What is the difference between a system on a chip and an embedded

system?
746 Views

What are some applications for system on a chips (SoC)?

93 Views

OTHER ANSWERS

RELATED QUESTIONS

What is a SoC ( System on Chip) and on what parameters can we compare

two different SoCs?
1,656 Views

What are the major differences between an SBC (single board computer)
and SoC (system on chip)?
3,789 Views

What is the difference between a microprocessor and a microcontroller?

62 Views

What is the difference between embedded systems and mobile systems?

1 View
 Open In App Sign In

290 Views

What is the relationship between an embedded system and systems on

chip?
552 Views

What is the difference between embedded system and digital system?

306 Views

How does a System on chip (soc) work?

2,244 Views

What is the relation between embedded systems and microcontrollers?

787 Views

How do system on a chips (SoC) differ from traditional desktop CPUs?

380 Views

What is the difference between 64bit SoC and a 32bit SoC for Android
devices?
847 Views

What is the difference between ARM7 and a microcontroller?

20,093 Views

What is the difference between a microcontroller and a computer?

5,928 Views

What is a SoC (System on a Chip)?

465 Views

What is the difference between a microcontroller and a microprocessor?

116 Views

About · Careers · Privacy · Terms · Contact