fast the chip operates and how much it costs. A standard cell normally represents a single logic gate. The use of standard cells allows the chip's design to be split into logical and physical levels. A fabless company would normally only work on the logical design of a chip, determining how cells are connected and the functionality of the chip, while following design rules from the foundry the chip will be made in, while the physical design of the chip, the cells themselves, are normally done by the foundry and it comprises the physics of the transistor devices and how they are connected to form a logic gate. Foundries supply libraries of standard cells to fabless companies for design purposes and to allow manufacturing of their designs using the foundry's facilities. Design lifecycle The integrated circuit (IC) development process starts with defining product requirements, progresses through architectural definition, implementation, bringup and finally production. The various phases of the integrated circuit development process are described below. Although the phases are presented here in a straightforward fashion, in reality there is iteration and these steps may occur multiple times. Requirements Before an architecture can be defined some high level product goals must be defined. The requirements are usually generated by a cross functional team that addresses market opportunity, customer needs, feasibility, and much more. This phase should result in a product requirements document. Architecture The architecture defines the fundamental structure, goals and principles of the product. It defines high level concepts and the intrinsic value proposition of the product. Architecture teams take into account many variables and interface with many groups. People creating the architecture generally have a significant amount of experience dealing with systems in the area for which the architecture is being created. The work product of the architecture phase is an architectural specification. Micro-architecture The micro-architecture is a step closer to the hardware. It implements the architecture and defines specific mechanisms and structures for achieving that implementation. The result of the micro-architecture phase is a micro-architecture specification which describes the methods used to implement the architecture. Implementation In the implementation phase the design itself is created using the micro-architectural specification as the starting point. This involves low level definition and partitioning, writing code, entering schematics and verification. This phase ends with a design reaching tapeout. Bringup After a design is created, taped-out and manufactured, actual hardware, 'first silicon', is