1. Purpose of the gate
Platform concept approval is the first commitment of money and people to a platform. The question it answers is not whether a given chip should be built, but whether several products the business expects to sell share enough to be built from one base of architecture, IP, software and tools, and whether that shared base will pay for itself across the family.
A platform costs more up front than a single product. The common core has to be designed for variation, verified for every supported configuration, documented for teams that did not build it and supported for longer than any one product. The return comes later, from derivatives that reuse most of the platform and reach the market faster and at lower cost. The review should see that this trade has been thought through, and that the products expected to carry the cost are real rather than hoped for.
The gate criteria are a reviewed and approved platform business case, the product family the platform serves named with the products expected first, and funding and core team agreed.
12 more sections for registered members.