How do we create a Semicondutor reference design? How much of it is software and how much of it is hardware?

I want to know the process of creating a semiconductor reference design. Before you start the design i want to know what are the technical steps that needs to be done? What is the business model we can adopt on this reference design?

How do we create a Semicondutor reference design? How much of it is software and how much of it is hardware?
do we know what we mean???

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