Cambridge chip technology business UltraSoC has been acquired by Texas-headquartered Siemens Digital Industries Software.

While no sum has been officially announced for the acquisition it runs into the multimillions, Business Weekly understands.

It is understood that UltraSoC will continue in Cambridge and that CEO Rupert Baines will stay at the helm in Cambridge immediately following the sale.

UltraSoC provides instrumentation and analytics solutions that put intelligent monitoring, cybersecurity and functional safety capabilities into the core hardware of system-on-chip. 

Siemens has bought UltraSoC to drive design for silicon lifecycle management. It plans to integrate UltraSoC’s technology into the Xcelerator portfolio as part of Mentor’s Tessent™ software product suite. 

The addition of UltraSoC to Siemens enables a unified data-driven infrastructure that can enhance product quality, safety and cybersecurity, and the creation of a comprehensive solution to help semiconductor industry customers overcome key pain points including manufacturing defects, software and hardware bugs, device early-failure and wear-out, functional safety, and malicious attacks.

Brady Benware, Tessent Vice-President and General Manager, Siemens Digital Industries Software, said: “Siemens’ acquisition of UltraSoC means that for the first time our customers can access not just design-for-test, but a comprehensive ‘Design for Lifecycle Management’ solution for system-on-chips, including functional safety, security and optimisation.

“By utilising design augmentation to detect, mitigate and eliminate risks throughout the SoC lifecycle, customers can radically improve time-to-revenue, product quality & safety, and profitability. 

“UltraSoC has a fast-growing business and impressive customer list and, as part of Siemens, can complement Tessent to create a truly unique offering in the market.”

The combination of Siemens and UltraSoC technology can benefit the entire semiconductor product lifecycle, including structural, electrical, and functional capabilities of SoCs. It also supports Siemens’ comprehensive digital twin with UltraSoC providing monitoring of the real device.

UltraSOC CEO Rupert Baines added: “This acquisition accelerates UltraSoC’s vision at a much larger scale with the incredible team, assets, industry know-how and footprint of Siemens.

“Being part of one of the world’s foremost technology companies will allow UltraSoC to better serve our customers by accelerating R & D, leveraging a much larger pool of go-to-market resources, and an enormous global infrastructure.

“It has been clear since our initial meeting that UltraSoC and Siemens share a vision on how technology businesses can transform their operations end-to- end, from design conception to field deployment and we are excited to join the community.”

He added in a blog: “What a momentous day this is. After five years in the role of CEO at UltraSoC, I am proud that we have agreed to become a part of Siemen, in a move that we knew made perfect sense from the time of our first meetings. It is striking just how clearly aligned our visions are.

“The pieces of the jigsaw fit together so nicely: UltraSoC’s technology and history with its customers; where Tessent is coming from and its market-leading design-for-test offering; and the broader vision of Siemens Digital Industries. 

“The combination takes us to another level: product lifecycle management is such a significant big-picture opportunity, as is cybersecurity and the concept of the Digital Twin. 

“Tessent and UltraSoC bring the core semiconductor element to that broader story, making it perfectly balanced. Tessent brings IP into the chip to improve test and manufacturability; UltraSoC enhances the validation process and extends that into field deployment. Overall, the combination enables a truly complete design for product lifecycle offering.

“Our people are spread around the world: in Cambridge and Bristol in the UK; in the US, Poland, China and Japan. Our geographical diversity means that we’ve actually never all been in the same place at the same time!

“The fact that Siemens has recognised our value is testament to the talent, hard work and the success of the entire organisation.

“Over five years, we’ve announced some incredible customer wins that have demonstrated the traction for our technology across security applications, automotive, enterprise IT, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). We’ve put significant effort into developing strong industry presence through strategic partnerships.

“As is the nature of the industry and the technology companies we sell into, we are under NDA with many customers and will never be able to publicly declare many of the major names in the technology industry who trusted us and decided to use our technology in the last few years. But our thanks to all of those customers and partners who have believed in us so strongly.”

UltraSoC‘s products are widely used in the automotive, high-performance computing, storage and semiconductor industries. The company was recently selected as a participant in the DARPA AISS (Automatic Implementation of Secure Silicon) program and is a member of the Secure-CAV consortium – an ambitious collaborative project that aims to improve the safety and security of tomorrow’s connected and autonomous vehicles. 
Siemens’ acquisition of UltraSoC is due to close in the fourth quarter of Siemens’ fiscal year 2020. 

Siemens Digital Industries Software is driving transformation to enable a digital enterprise where engineering, manufacturing and electronics design meet tomorrow. 

The Xcelerator portfolio helps companies of all sizes create and leverage digital twins that provide organisations with new insights, opportunities and levels of automation to drive innovation.