Qualcomm Snapdragon SiP 1 Explained: Difference Between SiP & SoC

From last one year, Asus is very active in the smartphone industry bringing back to back great smartphones whether its India or other regions. Asus Zenfone Max series is a great hit in India which includes Zenfone Max M1, Zenfone Max Pro M1, Zenfone Max M2 and Zenfone Max Pro M2. All are budget to mid-range devices which brings great value to consumers.

On March 15, Asus launched two mid-range smartphones in Brazil which includes Zenfone Max Shot and Zenfone Max Plus M2.

The main highlight of both of these smartphones is Qualcomm’s new chipset — Snapdragon SiP 1. Both are the world’s first smartphones to come with Snapdragon SiP 1 chipset. There are no major differences in both smartphones except an extra 8MP wide-angle camera on Zenfone Shot.

What is SiP?

SiP stands for System-in-Package. A System-in-Package is the evolution of the System-on-Chip (SoC) and is of great benefit to smartphone manufacturers.

In a SiP configuration, the vendor offers the application processor, audio codec, RF front end, power management and other important bits together in a small chip. The entire package is sold as a unit to the smartphone manufacturers. Since all the important bits are consolidated inside a small compressed chip, the circuit board gets more space, thereby offering manufacturers more space to fit components inside. It also makes the engineering and manufacturing process easier, thereby reducing the overall cost to the end-consumer.

As of now, Qualcomm is manufacturing SiP only in Brazil. Qualcomm has partnered with Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) for a new SiP. Soon, deployment of these chipsets will begin to other manufacturers and other regions.

What is Snapdragon SiP?

Qualcomm Snapdragon SiP is first commercial multi-chip semiconductor designed in Brazil. Snapdragon SiP helps smartphone manufacturers to be efficient, reduce development costs and accelerate time for commercialization.

The first SiP chipset is Snapdragon SiP 1 which is seen on the latest Asus smartphones. SiP 1 is only made for budget smartphones. In future, we will see more SiP chipsets for flagship smartphones also.

SiP vs SoC?

Compared with System-on-Chip (SoC), a System-in-Package (SiP) offers more space on the circuit board, this extra space will help smartphone manufacturers to add extra components on the circuit board.

In SoC, the processor, GPU and other components come separated which increase complexity and costs for manufacturers. But in SiP, the processor, GPU and all other components come as a unit which reduces complexity and costs for manufacturers.

Performance of SiP 1?

The performance of Snapdragon SiP 1 is similar to a Snapdragon 450 SoC. So, there will be a decent performance. The Snapdragon SiP 1 is using an Adreno 506 GPU. According to Asus, SiP 1 aids better battery life.