Session 10 overview: Mobile Systems-on-Chip (SoCs): Energy-efficient digital subcommittee

Mobile SoCs are becoming extremely complex to meet the relentless demand for more compute power and a richer user experience in mobile applications. Qualcomm's Hexagon DSP in 28nm CMOS consumes 58mW/MHz at 0.6V, while Renesas and MediaTek present multicore heterogeneous processors with low power to achieve long battery life and boost performance by exploiting thermal headroom. A multicore processor from KAIST delivers a rich user experience with a 30fps 720p augmented reality chip for wearable electronics. To minimize standby-power, NEC introduces a 16b MTJ-based non-volatile microcontroller with low wakeup time among NV SoCs. Additionally, power-efficient digital baseband SoCs from imec, the Technical University of Dresden and Ericsson are presented, which support multi-standard communication at low power using fine-grain power management techniques.