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Freescale Semiconductor Launches SemiCustom Operation to Speed Customer Time to Market

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 April 2004, 06:00 CDT

DALLAS, April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SMART NETWORKS DEVELOPER FORUM -- In an initiative to help customers get to market faster, Freescale Semiconductor, a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola, Inc. , has launched a SemiCustom operation that provides application- and customer-specific silicon solutions for the networking, communications and pervasive computing markets.

Freescale Semiconductor has established the operation to offer customers the benefits of scalable performance, fast time to market, and cost-effective silicon solutions through a flexible customer engagement model. Leveraging Freescale's scalable PowerPC(R) system-on-chip (SoC) platforms, customers are able to further reduce development costs through easy migration to next-generation system designs and reuse of software investments in Freescale's PowerQUICC(TM) processors containing PowerPC(R) cores and its line of PowerPC processors.

Freescale's SemiCustom operation develops highly integrated, customized PowerPC SoC platform designs built on a foundation of Freescale's processor cores and system blocks used in the company's standard products. The SemiCustom operation leverages Freescale's scalable, high-performance PowerPC e300 and e500 cores, DSPs based on StarCore technology, serializer/deserializer (SerDes) technology, integrated security engines, and mixed-signal portfolio.

With Freescale's scalable PowerPC SoC platforms, functional blocks can be quickly added or removed without having to redesign the entire semiconductor platform. Much of Freescale's functional block portfolio is developed in high-level behavioral languages to facilitate the porting of technologies to future processes. By developing networking and communications IC products for reuse, the SemiCustom operation is able to deliver silicon solutions within a 6- to 9-month timeframe. Rapid delivery of Freescale SemiCustom solutions not only accelerates time to market, it also enables longer time in market for Freescale customers. In addition, customers who are already familiar with the PowerPC cores used in Freescale's SemiCustom products can continue using their existing development tools and preserve their overall software investment.

"Freescale Semiconductor, Motorola's semiconductor subsidiary, is launching its SemiCustom operation at an opportune time when system manufacturers are consolidating silicon suppliers and looking for ways to reduce cost, streamline development and accelerate time to market with customizable, platform-based solutions," said Jerry Worchel, a principal analyst with In-Stat/MDR. "Freescale's scalable SoC platforms, broad technology portfolio and flexible customer engagement model should serve the company well as it enters the open semi-custom IC market."

The SemiCustom operation makes the following technologies, manufacturing capabilities and services available to Freescale customers:

- Freescale's family of scalable PowerPC e300 and e500 SoC platforms

- Communications processing engines from the industry-leading PowerQUICC architecture

- Advanced process and manufacturing technologies, including Freescale's 130nm and 90nm CMOS (with roadmaps to 65nm and 45nm), silicon germanium (SiGe), high-performance silicon-on-insulator (SOI), and multi-layer copper metalization technologies

- Mixed-signal design expertise, ranging from highly integrated mixed-signal implementations in standard CMOS to high-speed designs using BiCMOS technologies

- Systems engineering expertise to optimize silicon throughput for application needs

- Industry-leading packaging options spanning from affordable solutions to high-end flip-chip BGAs (FCBGAs)

- Flexible customer engagement model using industry-standard third-party tools.

Freescale Semiconductor amortizes the cost of its technology through its standard product portfolio of PowerPC processors, PowerQUICC communication processors, SerDes devices, connectivity technology, and security cores. Developed both internally and externally, Freescale's extensive portfolio of functional blocks is available to SemiCustom customers without licensing fees.

Freescale offers a range of flexible IC customization options. Customer logic can be integrated with a number of industry-standard peripheral connections and optimized bus integration structures. Custom combinations of system blocks can be mixed and matched to suit customer-specific application needs.

Freescale's system engineering services provide customers with SemiCustom solutions optimized for individual price/performance needs. Freescale engineers have developed extensive models correlated with silicon performance that enable customers to run performance simulations on each specific SemiCustom device. Static and dynamic analysis of processor and interface usage reveals potential bottlenecks in each customer's system. This service allows customers to architect their solutions in a manner that best suits their application requirements.

A hallmark of the SemiCustom operation is Freescale's flexible engagement model and design flow. Freescale Semiconductor supports the use of industry-standard third-party tools to ensure conformance with customer development systems. Freescale design services are available to accommodate customer inputs from architecture definition through mask preparation with the option of multiple hand-off points in the development cycle. With more than 15 years of experience in SemiCustom SoC design, Freescale Semiconductor offers design centers worldwide to support customers in developing SemiCustom solutions.

Ecosystem Support from Freescale, Metrowerks and Third Parties

Freescale's scalable PowerPC SoC platforms are supported by its Metrowerks subsidiary, and by a comprehensive ecosystem of development tools, operating systems and applications from third-party vendors working through Freescale's Smart Networks Alliance Program. Metrowerks provides the hardware, software and tools necessary to accelerate and streamline development of world-class products based on Freescale semiconductors. Metrowerks products and services span the development process, from board bring-up and kernel-level debugging to application creation and code analysis.

About Freescale Semiconductor

Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. ( http://www.freescale.com/ ), a subsidiary of Motorola, Inc., has a 50-year history in microelectronics. Freescale Semiconductor produces semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets worldwide. Based in Austin, Texas, Freescale Semiconductor has design, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 25 countries. Freescale Semiconductor's 2003 sales were $4.9 billion (USD).

Freescale(TM) and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. The "PowerPC" name is a trademark of IBM Corp. and used under license.

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Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.

CONTACT: North America, Dale Weisman of Freescale Semiconductor, office,+1-512-996-5142, or mobile, +1-512-560-6197, or dale.weisman@freescale.com ,or Kathy Truesdell, Representing Freescale Semiconductor, office,+1-512-996-5117, or mobile, +1-512-633-8620, or truesdel@onr.com ; or Europe,Middle East, Africa, Regina Cirmonova, +41-22-799-1258, orregina.cirmonova@motorola.com , or Asia Pacific, Gloria Shiu, +852-2666-8237,or gloria.shiu@motorola.com , or Japan, Koichi Yoshimura, +81-3-3280-8672, orkoichi.yoshimura@motorola.com , or Latin America, Ruth Ruiz, +1-480-814-4897,or Ruth.Ruiz@freescale.com , all of Freescale Semiconductor

Web site: http://www.motorola.com/http://www.freescale.com/

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