Cologne Chip

History


	The company logo shows the world-famous towers of Cologne Cathedral, which are a synonym for the city of Cologne. A stylized silicon wafer is added to the logo: The blue squares in the logo are taken from a quarter of this wafer – they symbolize the silicon die inside the chip. So the logo is actually a talking logo – it says: "Cologne Chip".

In 1994 a group of German electronic engineers founds Cologne Chip Designs with the objective to develop and manufacture the ASICs required for ISDN equipment.

Already two years later, Cologne Chip Designs attains the technological leadership with the world's first single-chip solution for ISDN add-on cards for Internet access: the "HFC-S". This chip development is succeeded by a series of innovations for PC applications: 1997 the first single-chip solution for PCMCIA, 1998 for PCI and 2000 for USB.

By the end of 1998, the successful start-up exports its feature-rich ISDN transceivers "Designed in Germany" to over 20 countries in the world, among them China, Taiwan and the U.S. The following years, Cologne Chip Designs exceeds all expectations by a yearly growth rate of about 100% and millions of sold chips.

Due to the continuous success, Cologne Chip Designs becomes a limited company by shares in May 2000 under the new firm "Cologne Chip AG". The company gains additional strength by a significantly increased share capital.

As a result of customer driven development, new chip families with additional line interface technologies (Primary Rate and ISDN Up0/UpN) are successfully launched on the market between 2002 and 2006. Especially the XHFC-series turns out to be the most modern ISDN solution world-wide available – with a perfect longevity prospect.

In the year 2005 the company expands its business activities by offering building blocks for ASIC projects, so called "IP cores": Once again it is a remarkable innovation that allows to implement analog chip functionality in pure digital CMOS architecture. This leads to an outstanding reduction of the silicon size required, for instance for CODECs which are offered by Cologne Chip, too.

As the first decade of the company’s history was dominated by ISDN chips tailored for Internet access and PC applications, the years from 2004 onwards set the focus on ISDN voice applications: Besides the usage in traditional telephony networks, ISDN interfaces are more and more utilized in CPE equipment for today’s IP-based Next Generation Networks.

As a consequence, Cologne Chip follows the latest developments in broadband access technologies, providing its ISDN transceivers to all kinds of Residential Gateways for the Central European market. In this way the company has an important share in the transition to IP telephony.

So it is no wonder that – even during the economic crisis of 2008/2009 – Cologne Chip gains new sales records and enjoys a bright outlook for the second decade of the new millennium.


	More than 16 years of expertise: The ISDN Chip Company!
	1994		Encouraged by the demand for digital telecommunication "Cologne Chip Designs" is founded to design and manufacture the ICs needed to build the required ISDN equipment.
	1996		The introduction of the world's first single-chip solution for ISDN cards: Cologne Chip "HFC-S".
	1997		Increase of sales at about 100% p.a. in the following years.
	1998		By this year, Cologne Chip Designs exports its products to over 20 countries in the world. Several world-known telecommunication equipment manufacturers join the company's customer base.
	2000		Due to the company's continuous success, Cologne Chip Designs becomes a limited company by shares in May 2000. The new company name is "Cologne Chip AG".
	2001		The company achieves outstanding results despite the stumbling computer and telecommunications industry.
	2002		Cologne Chip successfully launches a new chip family and expands its product range to Primary Rate Interface and multi-port applications.
	2004		The Universal ISDN Port is introduced to the market, integrating S/T and U_p0/U_pN interfaces into one transceiver.
	2005		The company develops ASIC IP cores for mixed-signal applications and introduces "DIGICC", a fully digital IP core technology.
	2007		The XHFC series, a new family of ISDN transceivers, effectively advances on the market.
	2008		Cologne Chip gains a key role within the transition from traditional PSTN to IP-based Next Generation Networks.
	2010		Germany’s largest telcos, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone, rely on ISDN technology from Cologne Chip as part of their broadband routers.
	2011		For all broadband access technologies – xDSL, cable (DOCSIS), FttH (GPON) and LTE – an ISDN interface has become a network agnostic feature: The XHFC series is used in all kind of Residential Gateways for the German market.

Last Modified: 24/05/2011