Design Methodology Process

A hallmark of the Customer Specific Products business is Freescale Semiconductor's flexible engagement model and design flow. Freescale supports the use of third-party tools to ensure conformance with each customer's development system. Our design services are available to take customer inputs from architecture definition through mask preparation with the option of multiple hand-off points in the development cyclefrom specifications to register-transfer level (RTL) to layout to manufacturing. In addition, our regional design centers are available to engage with customers on a number of aspects, including: floor planning, placement-based synthesis, timing analysis, test structure insertion, clock tree insertion, and test pattern generation.

Freescale offers full ASIC and SoC turnkey solutions to customers in the broadband, network, printing and imaging, and storage markets. Freescale system engineers and architects are available to work with customers to define the customers' specifications. Once specifications are defined Freescale does all the development work and provides fully qualified silicon to the customer. Intermediate deliverables are given to the customer at agreed stages in the development cycle.

Freescale offers RTL sign-off service to customers who opt to have Freescale handle both synthesis and layout. For very deep-submicron designs there is significant value in tightly coupling synthesis with physical design.

The traditional Application Specific Product approach has customers completing the synthesis and then delivering gate-level netlists to Freescale for layout. For very deep-submicron designs Freescale works closely with customers on placement based hierarchical initial floor placement and placement based synthesis.

For select customers Freescale also provides a Customer Owned Tooling (COT) service for those choosing to do the entire design themselves. This offers customers access to advanced process technology, assembly and testing services from Freescale and its partners.