A Modern System-on-Chip

As shown in the figure below, a modern System-on-Chip (SoC) often integrates both a CPU and a Graphics Core. The CPU is optimised for processing sequential, heavily-branched datasets that require low memory latency, dedicating transistors to control and data caches. The Graphics Core is optimised for repetitive processing of large, unbranched datasets, such as in 3D rendering. Transistors are dedicated to arithmetic logic units rather than data caches and flow control.

Fig. 1 Abstract heterogeneous architecture