Dolphin Integration

Dolphin Integration is a French Corporation headquartered at Meylan near Grenoble, France, since 1985. They partake in the design industry for microelectronics, which leverages the dynamics of the semiconductor industry. Their focus on CMOS Virtual Components of Silicon IP aims at enabling low-consumption System-on-Chip (SoC) based on digital libraries of standard cells and memories. Their historical offering is the continuation at IP level of the most popular microprocessor line ever: the Intel legacy of 8051, still prevalent in Smartcards. Their specialty offering for consumer devices includes digital-to-analog converters for sound-processing and measurement and analog-to-digital converters for audio applications with their power regulators. Their general-purpose business is in Electronic Design Automation (EDA): mixed-signal simulator, schematics editor, and mixed-signal power consumption estimator.

History

Name

Half of their name comes from the Dolphin, referring to the French province where lies its headquarters, the Dauphiné. 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.^[1]

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 (DGA) for dual high-tech (with civil applications).

1991

Microelectronic trophy from EUROASIC for a joint project with Roland Moreno, 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) from Richard Watts Associates who had designed it for the Music Synthesizer of Evolution Ltd (Shenzhen).

2002

First contract signed with Chinese customer in Shanghai at the first Design Automation Conference.

2003

Stock exchange listing on the French Over-the-counter market (MLDOL)^[1]

2004

Fall-out from DGA-funded innovation in an essential integrated circuit for the Airbus A380 ^[2]

2007

Funding of Dolphin Integration Inc. in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the development of power regulators.

Reward at the tenth edition of Innovation Trophy, organized by the French National Industrial Property Institute^[3]

Trophy of the “best service partner” in microelectronic design for the twentieth anniversary of STMicroelectronics^[4]

Transfer of stock-listing to the Alternext market (ALDOL)^[5]

2008

Certification ISO 9001:2008^[6]

Funding of Dolphin Integration Ltd. in Netanya, Israel for the development of Register files

2010

3 partnership agreements with TSMC for audio codecs at 40, 55 and 65 nm.

First sale in Korea of high-resolution measurement converters for Smart grid applications

2011

First partnership with TSMC for developing a sponsored library offering

“TSMC IP partner award” for analog/mixed-signal IP for high SNR audio converters ^[7]

2012

First contract with a European defense manufacturer, resulting from a collaborative project funded by the European Defense Agency (EDA SoC) ^[8]

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^[9]

2015

Dolphin Integration receives TSMC’s Open Innovation Platform® 2015 Partner of the Year Award for Specialty IP^[10]

References

External links

• The Dolphin Integration website