Zilker Labs

About Zilker Labs

Zilker Labs Inc. operated as a fabless semiconductor company, focusing on the design and development of power management and conversion integrated circuits. Founded in 2003 by Bob Bridge and Jim Templeton, the Austin, Texas-based firm carved a niche in the application-specific semiconductor industry. Bridge, who also served as the company's CEO, and Templeton established the firm to address growing complexities in board-level power design for embedded applications.

The company's core business involved creating mixed-signal power management solutions for clients in sectors such as telecommunications, datacom, storage, and other rack-based equipment industries. Its business model was centered on designing these specialized hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the actual fabrication to third-party manufacturers, a common practice for fabless firms.

Zilker Labs' flagship product was its proprietary Digital-DC™ technology. This technology integrated a digital-loop synchronous switching regulator, adaptive MOSFET drivers, and a digital control interface into a single integrated circuit. This approach offered significant benefits, including a reduction in the number of discrete components needed, which in turn decreased board space requirements, lowered system costs, and simplified design complexity for engineers. The ICs were configurable through simple pin-strap connections or the industry-standard PMBus command set, allowing them to be used as digital building blocks that could communicate with each other to manage power sequencing and conversion efficiently.

Throughout its operation, Zilker Labs was venture-backed, securing approximately $33 million to $35.8 million in funding from investors including H.I.G. Capital, North Bridge Venture Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds, and Samsung Venture Investment. After five years of operation, the company was acquired by Intersil Corporation in a definitive agreement announced in December 2008, a move intended to bolster Intersil's position in the digital power management market.