PC-on-a-chip coming soon.

[Mobius]

I always thought it was odd that Intel/AMD haven't ever produced a PC-on-a-chip: a single die which contained everything except the RAM. It stands to reason (at least to me) there must be a huge market for a core which features CPU, cache, memory controller, video chipset, sound chipset, peripheral controllers etc, such that a single mobile device needs almost no other components other than some sockets, some RAM, a display and a battery.

Wouldn't a core like this - running at very low voltages - be the perfect solution to most of our mobile-computing challenges? (Apart from the battery size, that is!)

Well, it looks like Chipzilla is on the case:
http://anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2444&p=2

[Mr. Perfect]

AMD is chipzilla now?

[Mobius]

Chimpzilla. Doh.

[Tricord]

If you bother to integrate everything, why not include the RAM? It will hardly complicate things over a die with everything on it except for the RAM.

My guess though -- it's too expensive to make something integrated that can compete with regular stuff. Plus, the need is limited, I would think.

[zapped]

If you bother to integrate everything, why not include the RAM? It will hardly complicate things over a die with everything on it except for the RAM.

Right, it's not the intellectual effort, it's the economics. Memory sticks contain multiple chips, and integrating even a modest amount of RAM (say 256MB) on a single-chip CPU would create a huge die and a corresponding exponential dropoff in yield.

[JMEaT]

It's a good plan. We use WinXP Embedded kiosks at my job but even that setup has a sizable footprint. Only problem is most companies favor Intel over AMD for their mission critical hardware.

Still I'd like to get my hands on a PDA with one of those chips in it.