Customer Specific ICs - Architecture Platforms

Atmel's SiliconCity™ ASIC design flow is essentially one of integration of application-specific functions into an architecture platform. Software development proceeds in parallel with hardware development, using device drivers supplied by Atmel for the peripherals and standard interfaces of the architecture platform. Industry-standard operating systems such as Linux®, Microsoft® Windows® CE and .NET Micro Framework, as well as a range of proprietary real time operating systems (RTOS) have already been ported onto Atmel's microcontroller-based platforms, making them available for ASICs with a minimum of additional effort. An emulation step, using an FPGA-based emulation board, validates the function of the hardware and associated software before committing it to silicon. This reduces the risk of a costly re-spin.

This highly parallel and highly supported design flow keeps design time and cost to a minimum.