As a small company with relatively low volumes (10,000s) , the only way to work with them is via an OEM who has an existing relationship with a distributor (not

As a small company with relatively low volumes (10,000s) , the only way to work with them is via an OEM who has an existing relationship with a distributor (not with the actual semiconductor company). That means you won't own your PCB design, at least for most OEMs, because they don't make money on the NRE (non recurring expense) so need you to use them for manufacturing to make back their investment. For larger volumes, ~100,000 you get to talk to a distributor yourself and design your own pcb. You still won't get to talk to anyone at BigSemiCo, but you will get access to datasheets and (probably) drivers. You will have to sign an NDA. For their largest customers, they go all out. The customer gets significant input into the design roadmap years in advance. They can get cost-reduced versions of existing parts that leave off blocks they aren't using. reference board designs and example software are provided (to the extent that low-margin, enormous volume customers sometimes just change the html logo and ship). If the product needs integrating, Field Engineers will be flown out to assist. There are some levels between these last two, where they will talk to you but not invest as much. Take the above numbers with a pinch of salt; it's been a while since I was in that industry