French semiconductor IP vendor Dolphin Semiconductor said its collaboration with HCLTech reflects growing demand for pre-optimized, platform-based system-on-chip development, as energy costs, time-to-market pressure, and design complexity rise.
In an interview with DIGITIMES Asia, Hakim Jaafar, VP of marketing & support at Dolphin, said power management and mixed-signal IP, rather than AI accelerators themselves, are now delivering the largest real-world efficiency gains in edge AI, IoT, and infrastructure silicon.
The partnership also positions Dolphin to expand the reach of its silicon-proven, mature-node IP into long-lifecycle markets such as smart metering and industrial systems, where India is emerging as a key deployment center.
From IP blocks to platform thinking
Dolphin framed the collaboration as part of a wider shift toward platform-based system-on-chip (SoC) development, driven by rising system complexity and shrinking development timelines. According to Jaafar, few chip developers today can afford the time and cost required to design every subsystem from the ground up.
"There is a high demand in the market to move fast and to optimize a platform rather than starting from nothing," Jaafar said, adding that the partnership aims to deliver designs that are optimized, reliable, and sustainable at the system level, not just at the IP block level.
While Dolphin emphasized that it remains an IP-focused company, it acknowledged that customers are increasingly asking for integrated subsystems that can be reused across multiple projects.
The company expects elements of the collaboration to begin yielding standardized outcomes within six months to a year, depending on customer programs.
Power management, not AI cores, drives efficiency gains
A key theme of the discussion was Dolphin's view that real-world energy efficiency gains come primarily from power management, rather than from AI accelerators or compute cores themselves.
Jaafar said DC-DC converters are the primary drivers of system-level power savings, with power-management choices directly affecting battery life and user experience. "Making the wrong choice will impact the user experience," Jaafar said.
This emphasis reflects a broader reassessment within the semiconductor industry, where attention is shifting back toward analog and mixed-signal design as AI workloads increase overall system power consumption.
Mixed-signal IP finds new relevance in AI and HPC
Jaafar also highlighted Dolphin's Meerkat IP, a mixed-signal monitoring technology designed to dynamically reduce voltage in systems including compute-intensive workloads.
Unlike traditional power-gating approaches that rely on static margins, Meerkat monitors internal signals in real time and adjusts voltage when conditions allow.
"The IP monitors internal signals, not voltage or power directly, to determine whether the operating voltage is sufficient or at risk," Jaafar said. "In traditional designs, engineers build in large safety margins to account for worst-case scenarios. If our IP determines that signal integrity and clocking are within safe limits, it can dynamically reduce voltage and save energy."
The discussion highlights how mixed-signal monitoring continues to play a strategic role, even as industry investment increasingly focuses on AI and compute-intensive designs.
Mature-node focus aligns with manufacturing reality
While Dolphin said its IP can be ported across process technologies, Jaafar's comments highlighted a focus on flexibility and reconfiguration within established nodes, rather than aggressive scaling to leading-edge processes.
"Our IP is designed to be flexible and portable across process technologies," Jaafar said. "While moving from 14nm to 3nm is clearly a very different effort, within a given node, our IP can be reconfigured rather than redesigned. For example, a power-management IP can be set for specific input and output voltages and a defined current level, but it is architected from the outset to scale to much higher current ranges. In many cases, it becomes a matter of reconfiguration to meet market requirements, rather than a full redesign."
This mature-node emphasis aligns with where most volume semiconductor production still occurs, particularly for cost-sensitive and long-lifecycle products.
Silicon-proven IP and productivity gains
Jaafar said most of the company's power-management portfolio has already been validated in silicon across customer designs, reducing risk and shortening time-to-tapeout. In many cases, reconfiguring IP for different voltage or performance requirements does not require a full new tapeout.
The company also cited productivity gains from its Power Studio tool, which automates power-domain configuration in complex SoCs. In one customer deployment, the tool saved 147 man-weeks of engineering effort by simplifying the management of dozens of power domains, according to Jafar.
Such savings are increasingly important as SoCs grow more complex and engineering resources remain constrained.
India emerges as a long-cycle deployment market
Dolphin pointed to accelerating demand in India for long-lifecycle applications such as power and smart metering, highlighting the country's role as a key market for deployed infrastructure silicon.
These systems typically require chips with operational lifespans of 10 to 20 years, placing a premium on reliability and low power consumption.
"In India, we are seeing an acceleration in demand for power and smart metering," Jaafar said. "These applications require extremely low power consumption and very long product lifecycles, often 10, 15, or even 20 years. When you enter this market, you are committing to the long term; it is fundamentally different from short-cycle consumer electronics."
Jaafar did not comment on plans for expanding Dolphin's local footprint in India. His earlier remarks, however, indicate that the partnership with HCLTech is intended as a longer-term collaboration rather than a one-off engagement.
Article edited by Jack Wu