Definition of a Particle Photon

Hi everyone,

can you call a development Board like the Photon a System-On-Chip? I’ve been thinking about this for a while and didn’t find a matching source to answer this question. Maybe one of you can help me out.

Sure a Photon integrates most parts of a personal computer on a PCB. But is this really the meaning of a System-On-Chip?
I’m asking this question because I found myself in a discussion where people insisted not to call development Boards like Arduino or Photon a System-On-Chip.
What do you guys think?

@ueerm, if you look at Wikipedia’s definition of an SoC, the STM32F205 used on the Photon and Electron could be considered an SoC. The Photon uses a module (P0) which also includes WiFi hardware making the entire assembly an SoM (system-on-a-module).

To be clear, the board (Photon, Arduino, etc) does not constitute an SoC or SoM. Instead, they use the SoC or SoM to provide a complete product such as a development board.

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