ASIC vs FPGA vs SoC
- ASIC: Application Specific Integrated Circuits. ASICs are chip that is basically hardwired to do a specific job. It is not something that can be used for some general-purpose application.
- SOC: System on Chip. It is basically a cluster / collection or group of different types of processor components like CPU/GPU/Modems/DSP units and memory units.
ASICs and FPGAs are both types of microchips. An ASIC is designed for a specific application while an FPGA is a multipurpose microchip you can reprogram for multiple applications.
- ASIC: tailered to the application; more efficient, consumes less power; cost effective: the better option for large production.
- FPGA: reprogrammable, shorter time to market
TPU is an ASIC. Edge TPU is one kind of TPU, also ASIC. Edge TPU was integrated into Google Tensor to be inside the Pixel phones, Google Tensor is a SoC
DPU is a SoC