System-on-a-chip (SOC) may take various forms, but three approaches are known: vendor design, partial integration, and desktop. These approaches provide a wide range of design flexibility and time-to-market scenarios. Some IBM designs that cover the spectrum of SOC design approaches are described. Hard cores in the considered designs include a 32-bit PCI, a PowerPC 401 CPU, a memory controller from Rambus, a video PLL (phase-locked loop), a video DAC, and two-high speed SRAMS.