• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

RAMP-C Program on Intel 18A Adds 2 Strategic Defense Industrial Base Customers

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
47,244 (7.55/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
Intel Foundry Services is onboarding two new defense industrial base (DIB) customers, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, as part of phase two of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)'s Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes - Commercial (RAMP-C) program. In phase two of the RAMP-C program, customers will use Intel 18A process technology and industry-standard electrical design and analysis tools and intellectual property (IP) to develop, tape-out and fabricate test chips in preparation for product design tape-outs.

"We are pleased to welcome Boeing and Northrop Grumman to the RAMP-C program. Boeing and Northrop Grumman will use their industry expertise to develop and support leading-edge semiconductor solutions using Intel 18A process technology for the success of vital DoD and national security systems. Together, we will continue to bolster the domestic semiconductor supply chain and ensure that the United States maintains leadership in process technology R&D, advanced manufacturing and microelectronics systems," said Kapil Wadhera, vice president of Intel Foundry Services and general manager of Foundry Solutions Business Group.



The RAMP-C program enables a U.S.-based commercial semiconductor foundry ecosystem to fabricate leading-edge custom integrated circuits and commercial products required for critical DoD systems.

Boeing and Northrop Grumman join the current lineup of RAMP-C customers - NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Microsoft and IBM - and will work closely with Intel and its ecosystem partners, Cadence and Synopsys, to enable access to state-of-the-art technologies that help protect U.S. national security.

The program allows both commercial foundry customers and the DoD to utilize Intel's significant investments in leading-edge process technologies, including Intel 18A, and establishes an ecosystem for commercial and government customers. Intel 18A process development continues on track and RAMP-C customers are developing test chips.

Intel is partnering with the DoD on three separate programs that aim to strengthen the U.S. government's microelectronics supply chain and accelerate U.S. leadership across the full spectrum of integrated circuit design, manufacturing and packaging. These programs include RAMP, RAMP-C and SHIP.

DoD announced the RAMP program in 2020 to develop a secure design and prototyping capability to demonstrate how the DoD can securely leverage state-of-the-art microelectronics technologies from industry without depending on a closed security architecture fabrication process or facility. Microsoft is the prime contractor, and Intel provides foundry services on Intel 16 process technology.

DoD awarded Intel the second phase of its State-of-the-Art Heterogeneous Integration Prototype (SHIP) program, and Intel delivered the first multi-chip package prototypes to BAE Systems in April 2023. The SHIP program enables the U.S. government to access Intel's U.S. advanced semiconductor packaging capabilities to develop new approaches toward measurably secure, heterogeneous integration and testing of advanced packaging solutions.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
3,338 (0.81/day)
Location
Athens, Greece
System Name 3 desktop systems: Gaming / Internet / HTPC
Processor Ryzen 5 5500 / Ryzen 5 4600G / FX 6300 (12 years latter got to see how bad Bulldozer is)
Motherboard MSI X470 Gaming Plus Max (1) / MSI X470 Gaming Plus Max (2) / Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3
Cooling Νoctua U12S / Segotep T4 / Snowman M-T6
Memory 32GB - 16GB G.Skill RIPJAWS 3600+16GB G.Skill Aegis 3200 / 16GB JUHOR / 16GB Kingston 2400MHz (DDR3)
Video Card(s) ASRock RX 6600 + GT 710 (PhysX)/ Vega 7 integrated / Radeon RX 580
Storage NVMes, ONLY NVMes/ NVMes, SATA Storage / NVMe boot(Clover), SATA storage
Display(s) Philips 43PUS8857/12 UHD TV (120Hz, HDR, FreeSync Premium) ---- 19'' HP monitor + BlitzWolf BW-V5
Case Sharkoon Rebel 12 / CoolerMaster Elite 361 / Xigmatek Midguard
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply Chieftec 850W / Silver Power 400W / Sharkoon 650W
Mouse CoolerMaster Devastator III Plus / CoolerMaster Devastator / Logitech
Keyboard CoolerMaster Devastator III Plus / CoolerMaster Devastator / Logitech
Software Windows 10 / Windows 10&Windows 11 / Windows 10
I hope Boeing and Northrop Grumman are not in a hurry and can wait a few years for Intel to make a functional 18A process.

Seriously, because with Intel we don't really know and I have forgotten, is 18A a 1.8 nanometers process or 3nm or even 5nm with a marketing name?
 
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Messages
1,190 (0.27/day)
Processor AMD Ryzen 3700x
Motherboard asus ROG Strix B-350I Gaming
Cooling Deepcool LS520 SE
Memory crucial ballistix 32Gb DDR4
Video Card(s) RTX 3070 FE
Storage WD sn550 1To/WD ssd sata 1To /WD black sn750 1To/Seagate 2To/WD book 4 To back-up
Display(s) LG GL850
Case Dan A4 H2O
Audio Device(s) sennheiser HD58X
Power Supply Corsair SF600
Mouse MX master 3
Keyboard Master Key Mx
Software win 11 pro
I hope Boeing and Northrop Grumman are not in a hurry and can wait a few years for Intel to make a functional 18A process.

Seriously, because with Intel we don't really know and I have forgotten, is 18A a 1.8 nanometers process or 3nm or even 5nm with a marketing name?
It's 1.8nm. But from what I've learned, even on TSMC side, the name is marketing: TSMC doesn't use the literal nm, but a performance equivalence: "It's not actually 3nm, but offers a similar density as if it was 3 nm." Meanwhile Intel is saying that their 1.8nm is as good as a TSMC 18A would be :D.
TSMC’s 7nm, 5nm, and 3nm “are just numbers… it doesn’t matter what the number is” | PCGamesN
 
Last edited:
Top