Freescale launches custom SoC business

Based on its ColdFire controllers, Power Architecture processors or ARM cores, Freescale said its portfolio of offerings is meant to give customers an opportunity to create unique solutions and reduce their bill of materials through technology integration or removal, and for customers already using Freescale products, they can further reduce development costs through easy migration to next-generation system designs and reuse of software investments.

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- Electronic News, 10/1/2008

To help system manufacturers that are consolidating silicon suppliers to reduce cost, streamline development and accelerate time to market, Freescale Semiconductor launched this week a customer specific products (CSP) business that aims to provide custom SoCs based on its Power Architecture processors, ColdFire controllers and i.MX platforms based on ARM technology to address the market need for highly customized devices.

Freescale said its portfolio of offerings is meant to give customers an opportunity to create unique solutions and reduce their bill of materials through technology integration or removal, and for customers already using Freescale products; they can further reduce development costs through easy migration to next-generation system designs and reuse of software investments.

The company also said that its processor platforms are meant to deliver optimal functionality and are scalable across a variety of end-products such as consumer hand-held devices, printing and imaging applications, home and enterprise networking solutions, wired and wireless infrastructure, SMB gateways, telematics systems and industrial control applications.

Dhiraj Handa, director and general manager of Freescale’s customer specific products business explained that to address the needs of system manufacturers that are consolidating silicon suppliers and looking for ways to reduce cost, streamline development and accelerate time to market, Freescale is combining customer and third party technology with its own portfolio of proven IP blocks, SoC platforms and product development eco-system and manufacturing expertise while adhering to high quality standards.

In terms of SoC customization options, Freescale said with its SoC platforms, designers can quickly add or remove functional blocks without redesigning the entire platform, while customer and third party technology can be integrated into the SoC platforms using a number of industry-standard bus structures along with custom combinations of proven system blocks that can be mixed and matched to suit customer-specific application requirements, Freescale noted.

Further, Freescale said it can implement the design from a delivered specification or the customer can deliver their portion of the technology as verified RTL, verified gates or verified layout for integration with the Freescale SoC platform with program management from Freescale and collaboration with customer engineering teams to ensure project execution.

Specifically, Freescale said its CSP business will make the following products, manufacturing capabilities and services available to OEMs and fabless semiconductor companies:

--SoC platforms – Power Architecture, ColdFire and the i.MX family of processors based on ARM cores
--Proven technology portfolio
--Flexible and efficient design and integration options for technologies based on specifications, RTL, netlist or hard macros
--Adherence to quality including zero-defect methodology
--Advanced packaging technology
--Manufacturing options with internal manufacturing prowess and external partnerships
--Branding flexibility
--Systems and software expertise within Freescale and through third-party alliances
--Multiple design slots available each quarter
--Worldwide support from global sales, marketing and design teams