Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Dolphin Interconnect Solutions
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
{{Short description|Manufacturer of high speed data communication systems}} {{advert|date=October 2018}} {{Infobox company |logo= Dolphin Interconnect Solutions logo.gif |name= Dolphin Interconnect Solutions |location= [[Oslo]], [[Norway]] |foundation= {{Start date and age|1989}} |traded_as= {{ose|DOLP}} |website= {{URL |www.dolphinics.com}} }} '''Dolphin Interconnect Solutions''' is a [[Privately held company|privately held]] manufacturer of high-speed [[data communication]] systems headquartered in [[Oslo]], [[Norway]]<ref>Wagner, N., Tiffany, P., Peterson, S. D. (2013). Business Plans For Canadians For Dummies. United States: Wiley.</ref><ref>Tveito, A., Bruaset, A. M., Lysne, O. (2009). Simula Research Laboratory: By Thinking Constantly about it. Germany: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.</ref> and [[Woodsville, New Hampshire]], [[United States|USA.]] The technology of Dolphin was based on development work at [[Norsk Data]] during the late 1980s. Dolphin Interconnect Solutions was founded in 1992 as a spin-off from Dolphin Server Technology which was, in turn, a spin-off from Norsk Data in 1989.<ref name="techmonitor19950703">{{cite news |title= Dolphin Interconnect is on its Way |url= https://techmonitor.ai/techonology/dolphin_interconnect_is_on_its_way |date=3 July 1995 |access-date= October 25, 2021 |work=Tech Monitor}}</ref><ref name="gustavson1999">{{ cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/springer_10.1007-10704208/page/n475/mode/1up | title=SCI - Scalable coherent interface : architecture and software for high-performance compute clusters | publisher=Springer | last1=Gustavson | first1=David B. | date=1999 | access-date=24 February 2023 | isbn=3-540-66696-6 | issn=0302-9743 | pages=472 }}</ref> Dolphin Interconnect Solutions develops technology for low latency and high-speed communication between servers and/or embedded computer systems. == History == Dolphin Server Technology emerged from Norsk Data, "a formerly flourishing Norwegian minicomputer maker", with one of its aims to build a business developing systems based on the Motorola [[88000]] architecture, these being adopted by Norsk Data as the new company's initial customer, with the intention of gradually reducing Norsk Data's stake to less than 50 percent and thus gradually increasing the new company's independence.<ref name="unixreview199002_risc">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_unix-review_1990-02_8_2/page/n17/mode/2up | title=Industry Report: RISC on the Rise in Europe | magazine=UNIX Review | last1=Faden | first1=Michael | date=February 1990 | access-date=24 February 2023 | pages=14, 16, 19, 21, 23, 25–26 }}</ref> Dolphin was established as a consequence of the restructuring of Norsk Data in 1988, the separation of product development from other aspects of the parent company's business, and the transfer of 125 employees from Norsk Data's development divisions. Another initial activity was to develop a Unix system for Norsk Data's existing ND-5000 range.<ref name="ndar1988">{{ cite book | url=http://norsk-data.com/library/libnews/NDAR-1988-EN.pdf | title=Annual Report 1988 | publisher=Norsk Data | date=May 1989 | access-date=7 July 2024 }}</ref>{{rp|pages=6}} Following an initial product announcement in late 1989,<ref name="unixreview198912_dolphin">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_unix-review_1989-12_7_12/page/n120/mode/1up | title=Nordic Nereus | magazine=UNIX Review | date=December 1989 | access-date=26 February 2023 | pages=117 }}</ref> by April 1990, Dolphin Server Technology had started shipping products in its Triton 88 series, based on the Motorola 88000 processor family, with these systems supporting up to four processors. Compliant with the [[88open]] Consortium's standards, the Triton 88 series ran a [[Unix]] product developed by [[UniSoft]], providing binary compatibility with contemporary 88000-based systems. Dolphin offered these products through value-added resellers in European, North American, and South American markets, also cultivating business with original equipment manufacturers, resulting in the Triton 88 models appearing "under several different brand names" worldwide.<ref name="unixreview199107_dolphin">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_unix-review_1991-07_9_7/page/38/mode/1up | title=Tested Mettle: The Dolphin Server Technology Triton 88 | magazine=UNIX Review | last1=Wilson | first1=David | date=July 1991 | access-date=24 February 2023 | pages=38, 40, 43–44, 46, 48 }}</ref> Having announced plans for an [[emitter-coupled logic]] (ECL) version of the Motorola 88000, projected to run at 125 MHz, executing up to eight instructions in parallel, and delivering a peak performance of 1000 [[Instructions per second|MIPS]],<ref name="byte199002_microbytes">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1990-02_OCR/page/n20/mode/1up | title=Microbytes | magazine=Byte | date=February 1990 | access-date=24 February 2023 | pages=17 }}</ref> Dolphin Server Technology participated in the development and standardization of [[Scalable Coherent Interface]] (SCI) technology, delivering the first prototype in 1992 for an implementation of the base SCI standard as a gate array fabricated by Vitesse Semiconductor. A [[CMOS]] implementation was demonstrated in 1994 in association with [[LSI Logic]].<ref name="lundstrom1994">{{ cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/definingglobalin0000unse/page/157/mode/1up | title=Defining the Global Information Infrastructure: Infrastructure, Systems, and Services | publisher=SPIE–The International Society for Optical Engineering | last1=Lundstrom | first1=Stephen F. | year=1994 | isbn=0-8194-1680-0 | pages=157–158 }}</ref> They were among the pioneers in the development and commercialization of the Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) technology. SCI was one of the earliest high-speed interconnect technologies designed to enable multiprocessing and data sharing across a wide area, significantly enhancing the performance of clustered computing environments. This innovation helped set the stage for the development of modern high-performance computing networks. The company had announced its plans for the ECL variant of the 88000, named Orion and developed in conjunction with Motorola, in December 1989. This processor, employing a technique called "instruction folding" originating from research done within Norsk Data, involved "a mutual exchange of patented technology" between the companies. It was hoped that Orion would ship in the first half of 1992.<ref name="unixreview199107_dolphin"/> Initially mentioned in Norsk Data's 1988 annual report, Orion was also the subject of a project under the auspices of the EUREKA programme in association with Siemens and NTNU, "building on four different technologies from Siemens AG, Motorola Inc., National Semiconductor Ltd. and Dolphin".<ref name="ndar1988"/>{{rp|pages=36}} Dolphin's ECL variant had, however, reportedly been abandoned already in early 1991 due to unspecified difficulties, with the company refocusing its Orion efforts on "Motorola's post-88110, 100MHz BiCMOS technology". The company planned to deliver an "interim Triton SCI system" early in 1992, combining elements of Orion with the [[Motorola 88110]], awaiting SCI's ratification by the IEEE before committing to a final product. Meanwhile, Dolphin planned enhancements to its Triton88 product, including a plug-in board with up to five 88000 processors and support for Unix System V Release 4.<ref name="unigramx19910128_dolphin">{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/UnigramX1991314-365/page/n32/mode/1up | title=Dolphin Abandons ECL 88000 RISC Plan, Decides to Wait for BiCMOS | work=Unigram/X | date=28 January 1991 | access-date=25 July 2024 | pages=5 }}</ref> The company also introduced a low-end Triton88 system to its range in September 1991, priced just below £{{Format price|10000}}.<ref name="unigramx19910930_dolphin">{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/UnigramX1991314-365/page/n256/mode/1up | title=Dolphin Adds Low-End Triton | work=Unigram/X | date=30 September 1991 | access-date=25 July 2024 | pages=5 }}</ref> In 1993, Dolphin, described as a vendor of "RISC-based UNIX multiprocessor servers" specializing in solutions for the government and banking, announced a deal with [[NeXT]] to resell NeXT computer products and to license NeXT's software technology.<ref name="nextworld199301_dolphin">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/NeXTWORLDVol.3ExtraJanuaryFebruary1993/page/n3/mode/1up | title=NeXT hooks into European server | magazine=NeXTWORLD | last1=Bergson | first1=Eliot | date=January 1993 | access-date=24 February 2023 | pages=4 }}</ref> Ultimately, Dolphin "abandoned the server market entirely",<ref name="gustavson1999"/>{{rp|pages=472|quote=Dolphin began as a minicomputer company, Norsk Data, then reorganized as Dolphin Server Technology when Norsk Data withdrew from that business, and finally abandoned the server market entirely, for an interconnect business based on SCI.}} the SCI product business itself being spun out as Dolphin Interconnect Solutions prior to TBK Telematikk's acquisition of Dolphin Server Technology in 1994. The acquired business was reoriented, becoming "a subsidiary focusing on support" within TBK,<ref name="techmonitor19950703" /> itself an organisation wholly owned by the Norwegian telecommunications monopoly that would later become [[Telenor]].<ref name="nou1995_3">{{ cite book | url=https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/nou-1995-3/id139774/?ch=20 | title=Mangfold i media Om eierkonsentrasjon i massemedia | publisher=Kulturdepartementet | date=21 February 1995 | access-date=31 July 2024 | pages=210-212 }}</ref> == Products == Dolphin started out continuing the development of a line of SCI products<ref>Liaaen M.C., Kohmann H. (1999) Dolphin SCI Adapter Cards. In: Hellwagner H., Reinefeld A. (eds) SCI: Scalable Coherent Interface. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1734. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/10704208_5</ref> from Norsk Data, by implementing customer-specific technology, as well as providing [[Peripheral Component Interconnect]] (PCI) and later [[PCIe]] boards for commodity and [[high-performance computing]] (HPC) systems. [[Sun Microsystems]] agreed to re-sell Dolphin's SCI interfaces for the [[SBus]] in 1996.<ref>{{Cite news |title= Sun Microsystems and Dolphin Sign OEM Agreement |date= October 10, 1996 |work= EE Times |url= https://www.eetimes.com/sun-microsystems-and-dolphin-sign-oem-agreement/ |access-date= October 25, 2021 }}</ref> Dolphin SCI products are available under the Dolphin Express SCI label. The StarFabric product line was added through the acquisition of StarGen Inc. in early 2007.<ref>{{Cite news |title= Dolphin, Stargen merge to ride Express |author= Rick Merritt |date= January 26, 2007 |work= EE Times |url= https://www.eetimes.com/dolphin-stargen-merge-to-ride-express/ |access-date= October 25, 2021 }}</ref> StarGen shareholders received about 22% of the combined company. StarGen, which became the US subsidiary of Dolphin, had been based in [[Marlborough, Massachusetts]], and led by Tim Miller.<ref>{{Cite news |title= Merger to yield I/O, clustering products based on PCI Express |author= Rick Merritt |date= February 12, 2007 |work= EE Times |url= https://www.eetimes.com/merger-to-yield-i-o-clustering-products-based-on-pci-express/ |access-date= October 25, 2021 }}</ref> StarFabric provides a PCI-based interconnect running over standard [[Ethernet]] [[Category 5 cable]]s. Similarly, the Dolphin Express DX product line introduced in 2006 was also acquired from StarGen. DX was based on the Advanced Switching Interconnect (ASI) standard and implements a PCI Express Gen1 switched-topology technology supporting both host to host communication and host to IO expansion over an individual cable connection.<ref>{{Cite book |date= September 17, 2007 |doi= 10.1109/CLUSTR.2007.4629266 |author1=Venkata Krishnan |author2=Tim Miller |author3=Herman Paraison |title= 2007 IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing |chapter= Dolphin express: A transparent approach to enhancing PCI Express |pages= 464–467 |isbn= 978-1-4244-1387-4 |s2cid= 14004892 }}</ref> A company called Numascale was spun out of Dolphin in 2008, referring to the concept of [[non-uniform memory access]] (NUMA).<ref>{{Cite news |title= Numascale brings big iron SMP to the masses |author= Timothy Prickett Morgan |date= November 24, 2010 |work= EThe Register |url= https://www.theregister.com/2010/11/24/numascale_shared_memory_interconnect/ |access-date= October 25, 2021 }}</ref> The Dolphin Express IX product line introduced in 2010 is based on PCIe Gen2 and Gen3 integrated circuits ("chips") from [[Integrated Device Technology]]. The Dolphin Express PX product line, introduced in 2016, is based on PCI Express Gen3 chipsets from [[Broadcom]]. IX and PX implements a PCIe-native switched-topology technology. The SISCI [[application programming interface]] (API) was developed for the [[shared memory architecture|shared memory]] SCI hardware. With the introduction of the PX, IX, and DX-line of products, the API was expanded to support features like [[reflective memory]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wallstreetandtech.com/data-latency/dolphin-launches-low-latency-networking/215300014|title=Dolphin Launches Low Latency Networking Solution|website=Wall Street & Technology}}</ref> multicast and PCIe peer-to-peer communication. SuperSockets is a software platform for Dolphin Express providing a low latency, high throughput implementation of the [[Berkeley sockets]] and [[Winsock]] APIs.<ref>{{Cite conference |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-64359-1_724 |editor=José Rolim |last1=Ryan |first1=Stein Jørgen |last2=Bryhni |first2=Haakon |title=Eliminating the protocol stack for socket based communication in shared memory interconnects |date=March 30 – April 3, 1998 |book-title=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |volume=1388 |conference=10th International Parallel and Distributed Processing, held in conjunction with the 12th International Parallel Processing Symposium and 9th Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing |doi=10.1007/3-540-64359-1_724 |publisher=Springer |location=Orlando, Florida, USA|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It was introduced in 2007.<ref>{{Cite news |title= Dolphin, Stargen Swims After InfiniBand in Clusters |author= Rick Merritt |date= April 16, 2007 |work= EE Times |url= https://www.edn.com/dolphin-swims-after-infiniband-in-clusters/ |access-date= October 25, 2021}}</ref> SmartIO has been used to share GPUs, NVMe drives, and other devices in a PCIe network.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://developer.nvidia.com/gtc/2019/video/s9709|title=GTC Silicon Valley-2019: Dynamic Sharing of GPUs and IO in a PCIe Network|date=April 28, 2019|website=NVIDIA Developer}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=SmartIO: Zero-overhead Device Sharing through PCIe Networking|first1=Jonas|last1=Markussen|first2=Lars Bjørlykke|last2=Kristiansen|first3=Pål|last3=Halvorsen|first4=Halvor|last4=Kielland-Gyrud|first5=Håkon Kvale|last5=Stensland|first6=Carsten|last6=Griwodz|date=July 8, 2021|journal=ACM Transactions on Computer Systems|volume=38|issue=1–2|pages=2:1–2:78|doi=10.1145/3462545|doi-access=free|hdl=10852/86684|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.microcontrollertips.com/pcie-sharing-resources-faq/|title=PCIe with low cost and low latency, ideal for sharing resources|website=www.microcontrollertips.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://lreese.dotsenkoweb.com/2018/09/18/automotive-industry-eyes-low-cost-low-latency-pcie-for-sharing-resources/|title=Automotive Industry Eyes Low-Cost, Low-Latency PCIe for Sharing Resources – Lynnette Reese}}</ref> ==References== {{reflist}} == External links == * {{Official website|http://www.dolphinics.com/}} {{Authority control}} [[Category:Computer companies of Norway]] [[Category:Computer hardware companies]] [[Category:Software companies of Norway]]
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page
(
help
)
:
Template:Advert
(
edit
)
Template:Authority control
(
edit
)
Template:Cite book
(
edit
)
Template:Cite conference
(
edit
)
Template:Cite journal
(
edit
)
Template:Cite magazine
(
edit
)
Template:Cite news
(
edit
)
Template:Cite web
(
edit
)
Template:Format price
(
edit
)
Template:Infobox
(
edit
)
Template:Infobox company
(
edit
)
Template:Main other
(
edit
)
Template:Official website
(
edit
)
Template:Reflist
(
edit
)
Template:Rp
(
edit
)
Template:Short description
(
edit
)
Template:Template other
(
edit
)