Products and Services

FirstPass is a full-service, one stop shop that can execute all, or any portion, of the product development process, from concept to production. We have demonstrated success in:

Architecture/Definition
FirstPass has demonstrated expertise in taking a development from concept through to production. We understand the relationship between specification and implementation, and know how to partition designs and make trade offs necessary for performance, risk mitigation and functional flexibility. We are very well versed in technology capability analysis and selection. Our foundry experience includes TSMC, Honeywell, Altera, IBM, Atmel, Motorola, UTMC (Aeroflex), Vitesse, UMC and others along with Altera and Xilinx FPGAs.

Design
The FirstPass engineering team averages over 20 years of system, board and ASIC design experience. Our expertise includes digital, mixed signal, analog, I/O, memories, and very high speed circuitry including SerDes. RTL expertise includes both VHDL and Verilog. We have taken hundreds of designs from specification through to fabrication. Probability is high that we have directly related experience that meets your requirements and type of project. Contact Bob Schneiderwind if you have questions regarding program experience.

Synthesis and Timing Closure
Synthesis and timing closure starts with robust design. We understand how to code to meet timing and optimize power and area. Good synthesis planning pays dividends in physical implementation. We have used many synthesis tools from many vendors including Synopsys Design Compiler, Synopsys Primetime and Magma.

Verification
FirstPass engineers are verification experts. As ASIC and system capabilities have exponentially increased, verification methodologies have changed dramatically. The randomized, object oriented approach to verification has greatly increased the efficiency and quality of pre-silicon simulation. Verification metrics such as code coverage and functional coverage allow us to answer the question "When are we done?" These metrics also provide a good understanding of risk and program tracking. Widespread use of assertions in RTL coding have reduced debug time and increased correlation between specification, design and verification. Formal verification is showing tremendous capabilities as well. We are experts with System Verilog, Vera, and Specman as well as VHDL and Verilog testbenches for lower complexity devices. This verification methodology is the key to FirstPass success!

Physical Design
FirstPass engineers have successfully performed physical implementation of designs onto FPGAs, Gate Arrays, Standard Cell, and transistor level full custom ASICs. We have designed libraries along with Design Rule Check files and Electrical Rule Check files. We have taken many designs from RTL to GDSII release to foundry, and performed all physical verification checks including timing, power, logic equivalency, layout versus schematic, on chip variation, cross talk, etc. Tight integration with the design functions results in a manageable, high performance, low risk and efficient physical implementation.

Silicon Validation and Test
FirstPass currently does not have test facilities. Working with our partners, we have brought multiple designs into production. Our management team has extensive experience coordinating all efforts required for validation and test.