Dolphin Design is a
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...
design company, founded in 2018 following its acquisition by
Soitec
Soitec is an international company, based in France, that manufactures high performance substrates used in the manufacture of semiconductors.
Soitec's semiconductor materials are used to manufacture chips which equip smartphones, tablets, ...
. Formerly knows as Dolphin Integration, it is based in
Meylan
Meylan (; frp, Mèlan) is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. It is part of the Grenoble urban unit (agglomeration).
Population
Misuse of public money
In 2013, the newly reelected Mayor of Meylan Marie-Christine Tar ...
in the Grenoble region.
History
Dolphin Design is a semiconductor design company, created in 2018 after Dolphin Integration was acquired by
Soitec
Soitec is an international company, based in France, that manufactures high performance substrates used in the manufacture of semiconductors.
Soitec's semiconductor materials are used to manufacture chips which equip smartphones, tablets, ...
. Dolphin Design is based in
Meylan
Meylan (; frp, Mèlan) is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. It is part of the Grenoble urban unit (agglomeration).
Population
Misuse of public money
In 2013, the newly reelected Mayor of Meylan Marie-Christine Tar ...
in the Grenoble region. It also has R&D offices in
Laval, Canada and
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
.
Dolphin Integration as it was formerly know, is a semiconductor design company, established in 1985, with the mission of developing complex analog, digital and miwed-signal IPs for design companies.
The catalog initially included libraries of
standard cells and embedded memory generators, converter for measurement and high resolution audio processing, low power IPs, EDA solutions which included a
mixed signal simulator (SMASH).
Since then, the catalog has evolved to include IPs for ultra-low power management, audio, MCU sub-system, AI/ML accelerator and DSPs.
On July 24, 2018, the assets of Dolphin Design were acquired over by a joint-venture created by
Soitec
Soitec is an international company, based in France, that manufactures high performance substrates used in the manufacture of semiconductors.
Soitec's semiconductor materials are used to manufacture chips which equip smartphones, tablets, ...
and
MBDA
MBDA is a European multinational developer and manufacturer of missiles.[MBDA Inc. US Division Co ...](_blank)
.
On July 16, 2019, Dolphin Integration was placed in receivership.
As of 2022, the company employs 170 people. Its turnover as of December 31, 2021 is : €21 942 000.
Activities
Dolphin Design develops analog, digital and mixed-signal IPs and platforms in the area of audio, ultra-low power, AI/ML and processing.
In 2020, Dolphin Design received the Solar Impulse Label, and in 2022 it received the Embedded World Award in the startup category for its AI/ML accelerator (TinyRaptor). This product was developing following a three-year collaboration with the CEA Grenoble (List Laboratory).
It proposes a range of products using different technologies:
Machine Learning
Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence.
Machine ...
,
Digital Signal Processor, ASIC, Neural Processor Unit,
Voltage Regulator
A voltage regulator is a system designed to automatically maintain a constant voltage. A voltage regulator may use a simple feed-forward design or may include negative feedback. It may use an electromechanical mechanism, or electronic components ...
,
Edge Computing, wearables and automotive.
Market and competition
The semiconductor market has been growing rapidly since the 1970s. The growth has accelerated in the last few decades especially in the areas of IoT,
Edge Computing, wearables and automotive.
It collaborates with foundries companies such as:
TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC; also called Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the world's most valuable semiconductor company, the world' ...
,
Global Foundries, SMIC,
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
, to develop its products.
Time line
Name
Half of their name comes from the Dolphin, referring to the French province where lies its headquarters, the
Dauphiné
The Dauphiné (, ) is a former province in Southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois.
In the 12th centu ...
. Their logo is a dolphin jumping with the shape of an integral symbol. It jumps over the pad-ring of an integrated circuit, which yields the other half of their name.
1985
Founding of Dolphin Integration in 1985 with a dedication to design services to the Integrated Device Makers (IDM) in the wake of deverticalization of this industry.
[.]
1986
COOPEREL prize from then FIEE, now FIEEC as the French Federation of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Industries.
1987
Partnership with the French military procurement at
Direction générale de l'armement
The Direction générale de l’armement (DGA; English: Directorate General of Armaments), is the French Government Defence procurement and technology agency responsible for project management, development and purchase of weapon systems for the Fr ...
(DGA) for dual high-tech (with civil applications).
1991
Microelectronic trophy from EUROASIC for a joint project with
Roland Moreno
Roland Moreno (11 June 1945 – 29 April 2012) was an Egyptian inventor, engineer, humorist and author who was the inventor of the smart card. Moreno's smart card, or ''la carte à puce'' in French, was little known internationally. However, he b ...
, the inventor of the
Smart card.
1995
Launch of Dolphin's first Virtual Component of Silicon IP sold to
Fabless IC suppliers at the time of emergence of TSMC as the first foundry.
First foray into Asian markets started in Japan.
1997
First-ever conference-exposition for the nascent IP business with “IP-97” in Santa Clara.
Market entry into Taiwan.
1999
Acquisition of the first working virtual components (
i8051
The Intel MCS-51 (commonly termed 8051) is a single chip microcontroller (MCU) series developed by Intel in 1980 for use in embedded systems. The architect of the Intel MCS-51 instruction set was John H. Wharton. Intel's original versions were pop ...
) from Richard Watts Associates who had designed it for the Music
Synthesizer of Evolution Ltd (
Shenzhen
Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...
).
2002
First contract signed with Chinese customer in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
at the first
Design Automation Conference.
2003
Stock exchange listing on the French
Over-the-counter
Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are medicines sold directly to a consumer without a requirement for a prescription from a healthcare professional, as opposed to prescription drugs, which may be supplied only to consumers possessing a valid prescr ...
market (MLDOL)
2004
Fall-out from DGA-funded innovation in an essential integrated circuit for the
Airbus A380
The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner.
Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...
2007
Funding of Dolphin Integration Inc. in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
, Quebec, Canada for the development of power regulators.
Reward at the tenth edition of Innovation Trophy, organized by the French
National Industrial Property Institute
Trophy of the “best service partner” in microelectronic design for the twentieth anniversary of
STMicroelectronics
Transfer of stock-listing to the
Alternext
Euronext Growth is a multilateral trading facility (MTF) operated by Euronext. This equity trading market that was opened May 17, 2005 to address an opportunity posed by small to medium-sized firms that were anticipated to desire easier access ...
market (ALDOL)
2008
Certification
ISO 9001:2008
Funding of Dolphin Integration Ltd. in
Netanya, Israel for the development of
Register files
2010
3 partnership agreements with
TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC; also called Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the world's most valuable semiconductor company, the world' ...
for
audio codec
An audio codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream (a codec) that encodes or decodes audio. In software, an audio codec is a computer program implementing an algorithm that compresses and decompres ...
s at 40, 55 and 65 nm.
First sale in Korea of high-resolution measurement converters for
Smart grid applications
2011
First partnership with
TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC; also called Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the world's most valuable semiconductor company, the world' ...
for developing a sponsored library offering
“TSMC IP partner award” for analog/mixed-signal IP for high
SNR audio converters
2012
First contract with a European defense manufacturer, resulting from a collaborative project funded by the
European Defense Agency (EDA SoC)
2013
Renewal of the “innovative company” qualification by the BPI-France (the French Public Investment Bank)
2014
Dolphin Integration receives TSMC's Open Innovation Platform® 2014 Partner of the Year Award for Specialty IP
2015
Dolphin Integration receives TSMC's Open Innovation Platform® 2015 Partner of the Year Award for Specialty IP
2018
Dolphin Integration enters a new era following the appointment of Christian Dupont as CEO of the company.
Dolphin Integration enters bankruptcy proceedings
https://www.dolphin-integration.com/index.php/investors/news/448
Dolphin Integration has been acquired by Soitec (60%) and MBDA (40%) for a total amount of 5 M€
2019
Philippe Berger was appointed as new CEO
Dolphin Integration becomes Dolphin Design.
2020
Silvaco
Silvaco Group, Inc., develops and markets electronic design automation (EDA) and technology CAD (TCAD) software and semiconductor design IP (SIP). The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and has a global presence with offices ...
acquired the memory compiler technologies and standard cell libraries of Dolphin Design.
References
{{Reflist
External links
The Dolphin Integration website
Software companies of France
Electronic design automation