Microsoft chooses Siemens for Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes Program

Microsoft has chosen Siemens Digital Industries Software for its Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes (RAMP) Phase II initiative. The RAMP standard was created by the US Department of Defense for secure prototyping of microelectronics, and added Microsoft to the program in 2020.

Siemens and Microsoft have a longstanding partnership for electronic design automation. With the latest partnership, Siemens will support the hardware needs of Azure Government deployments. At least at first, Siemens will contribute integrated circuit design on the back end with the Siemens Calibre platform for verification. Microsoft is using a wide-range of Calibre capabilities including layout, reliability, and extraction options.

"Our experience with Siemens for EDA on the cloud to address commercial customer needs is now being leveraged in the RAMP Phase II program, to help the government and the defense industry develop silicon with secure access to advanced commercial design processes,” stated Mujtaba Hamid, general manager, Silicon, Modeling and Simulation, Microsoft.

"Siemens is pleased that Microsoft has agreed to extend our relationship into their RAMP II program. This additional collaboration will help to demonstrate that semiconductors designed through the RAMP II program can leverage Siemens' industry-leading verification expertise. Additionally, expanding our cloud collaboration with Microsoft Azure Government is expected to generate valuable insights that can be fed back into the RAMP program in an effort to enhance the design and security of next-generation integrated circuits derived from the DoD's RAMP program,” said Michael Buehler-Garcia, vice president for Calibre Design Solutions Product Management, in a statement.