News & Events
Intersil Achieves Strong First Quarter Results

-- Sales grow 10% sequentially and 5% annually~-- Gross margins improve to a record 53%~-- Adjusted earnings per share reach $.14, beating estimates~-- Calendar year 2002 growth expected to exceed 20%

IRVINE, Calif. – April 24, 2002 – Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL) today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 29, 2002. Sales grew to $134.1 million, an increase of 10% sequentially and 5% compared to 2001, exceeding previous guidance. Adjusted net income was $15.4 million or $.14 per diluted share of common stock versus adjusted net income of $8.1 million or $.07 per share for the same quarter of 2001. Including amortization of intangibles, the company recorded net income of $13.8 million or $.13 per share for the first quarter of 2002.

Intersil’s gross margins reached a record high 53%, an increase of 100 basis points from the previous quarter and 500 basis points from a year ago, with improvement across all business groups. The company continues to focus on driving down costs while delivering highly differentiated, innovative products. The first quarter results marked the fourth consecutive quarterly improvement in gross margins.

“We are very pleased with our performance during the first quarter of 2002. Intersil exceeded expectations with strong sequential growth in orders, sales and profit,” said Intersil President and CEO Greg Williams. “Orders increased 40% sequentially and 50% on an annual basis. With revenues up 5% over 2001, Intersil is one of the few semiconductor companies delivering year-over-year growth. We continue to grow EPS while investing in research & development and launching exciting new products which should lead to additional orders and sales growth in the second half of 2002.”

“Intersil continues to outpace the overall semiconductor industry in revenue growth and gross margin expansion,” continued Williams. “We are one of the fastest growing semiconductor companies in the world today and have built a sustainable and profitable business model by focusing our resources on some of the highest growth segments of the industry and launching the most innovative and complete solutions.”

Adds Williams, “Intersil has established leadership positions and expertise in wireless networking and power management, and continues to win new designs for desktops and peripherals, notebooks and residential gateways. We are now successfully applying that knowledge and experience to even more customer platforms such as handhelds, smartphones, printers, flat panel displays and other emerging applications.”

Intersil has one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry, exiting the first quarter with $603.7 million in cash and no debt.

Results by Product Group
Wireless Access
Intersil’s Wireless Access sales were $49.0 million, an increase of 30% from the previous quarter and up more than 36% from a year ago. Gross margins for the Wireless Access business improved to 50.6%, up 230 basis points from the previous quarter and up 850 basis points from a year ago. Intersil continues to successfully launch new generations of its industry-leading PRISM® wireless local area networking (WLAN) solutions and is well positioned for future growth as the market leader. The WLAN market is expected to grow by nearly 50% in each of the next two years, according to a report published in March 2002 by market analyst In-Stat/MDR.

“As the innovative technology leader for WLANs, we achieved outstanding orders and sales growth during the first quarter,” said Williams. “Intersil’s PRISM 3 - the industry’s first direct down conversion radio - continues to win new designs due to it high performance and low cost, and is quickly becoming our fastest growing WLAN product yet. We have expanded our position in embedded wireless notebooks through a recent design win with a major Japanese notebook supplier, and now support eight of the world’s top ten notebook PC manufacturers with WLAN chip sets. Intersil also added leading consumer suppliers Linksys and Bromax to our growing list of PRISM 3 customers, and we expect our advanced Wi-Fi (802.11b) solution to win many more designs in the coming months.”

Design activities are increasing on new dual-mode solutions that incorporate Intersil’s PRISM 802.11b offerings. Intersil and partner Silicon Wave unveiled the world’s first working dual-mode Bluetooth™ and 802.11b solution in a demonstration by Microsoft® at its recent Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC). Called Blue802™, this reference design provides seamless, interference-free operation of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in a single miniPCI card that saves precious real estate in notebooks and access points.

At the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) show in March, Intersil’s PRISM technology was at the heart of two exciting dual-mode radio demonstrations providing both WLAN and wide area cellular network connectivity. Both illustrated how notebook PC users can gain wireless access to the Internet within a WLAN hot spot with Intersil’s Wi-Fi technology or within a wide area network with GPRS or CDMA2000 cellular technology. These dual-mode products illustrate Intersil’s technology leadership and should provide additional growth markets and revenue opportunities.

For the millions of Wi-Fi customers who want an easy upgrade path to higher data rates, Intersil continues to make good progress with partner Cisco on a reference design for the IEEE’s draft 802.11g standard. This radio reference design will provide data rates of up to 54 Megabits per second and incorporate Cisco’s enhanced security and network support features with Intersil’s PRISM GT™ chip set. The design offers customers the extended range and lower power consumption benefits of the 2.4GHz band and is backward compatible with millions of 802.11b radios already deployed. Intersil has received strong interest in this reference design from customers across all market segments, and expects design wins and volume shipments in the second half of 2002.

Intersil successfully demonstrated its PRISM™ Indigo 5GHz chip set at the Consumer Electronics Show during the quarter. The company continues to sample PRISM Indigo to leading customers and expects revenue in the third quarter. PRISM Indigo is tailored for 802.11a applications, including short-range access and building-to-building bridges.

“Intersil is the innovative technology leader for WLANs -- with highly integrated architectures for everything from handhelds to hot spots,” said Williams. “We have orders momentum, the most complete product roadmap, proven high-volume experience with the world’s leading customers and a commitment to WLAN research & development unparalleled by any competitor in the industry today.”

Communications Analog
Intersil’s Communications Analog sales were $50.1 million during the first quarter, a slight increase over the prior quarter and up almost 18% from a year ago. Gross margins for the Communications Analog business improved to 54.9%, up 120 basis points from the previous quarter and 590 basis points from the same quarter last year. Intersil expects to introduce 100 new analog products during 2002, up more than 50% from last year. These new high performance analog products are aimed at existing and new markets for the company.

During the first quarter, Intersil announced that it is sampling a new Endura™ multiphase power solution that provides precise, on-the-fly dynamic voltage control for next-generation microprocessors. The company is expanding its power management family to address attractive new applications such as double-data rate (DDR) memory and graphics cards. Intersil secured design wins with two of the world’s leading graphics card manufacturers, increased its market share in DDR memory for desktop, notebooks and servers, and began volume shipments of power ICs to support these peripheral power applications during the quarter.

“Intersil’s Communications Analog business continues to be driven by our strong power management portfolio, where we are applying our desktop leadership and experience to new growth markets for the company – notebooks, set-top boxes and handhelds,” said Williams. “Five of the leading notebook PC contract manufacturers have now selected Intersil’s reliable and power-efficient solution, and we expect to continue to win new designs for our Endura power management family. Intersil has also been designed into more than 20 residential gateways and set-top boxes, which should lead to a revenue ramp-up in the second half of the year.”

The first quarter also signaled a return to sequential revenue growth in Intersil’s standard products within Communications Analog, with particular strength in the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and switch/MUX/interface portions of the business. Intersil won four customer designs during the quarter with its new family of 3-volt RS-232 interface ICs for handheld devices and portables. Intersil’s RS-232 transceivers offer design advantages because of their smaller packaging, low power usage and electro-static discharge protection for reliable high-speed data transfer in the 3-volt supply range.

Standard Analog
Revenue for Intersil’s Standard Analog products was $35.0 million during the first quarter, a slight increase from the previous quarter. Orders were up significantly with broad-based demand from all geographies and end markets.

“Our gross margins in Standard Analog improved to a record 53.7%, an increase of 20 basis points during the first quarter and 240 basis points compared to a year ago,” said Williams. “We remain on track to complete our analog fab consolidation in the third quarter which will lead to further improvement in total analog margins.”

“Intersil is one of the largest analog companies in the U.S. and one of the few to expand gross margins throughout 2001 and again in the first quarter of 2002,” added Williams. “With a record 100 new analog products coming to market this year, we are well positioned for growth.”

Other Business
Pending shareholder approval, Intersil will acquire Elantec Semiconductor, Inc. in mid-May. Elantec will add complementary strengths to Intersil, including 150 high performance analog products, more than 70 analog engineers and an increased presence in Silicon Valley, Japan and Korea. The combined company will enjoy market leadership in four of the fastest growing segments – wireless networking, power management, optical storage (CD and DVD recordable) and flat panel displays – all critical applications with accelerating adoption rates.

“Intersil will play a much more strategic role with key customers and provide significantly more content per computing platform, enhancing the company’s value proposition,” said Williams. “When approved, the combination of Intersil and Elantec will create a leading force in high performance analog and wireless networking that should continue to outperform the industry. Both companies are already engaged in a rapid integration process, and are focused on customer care during the transition. We believe that Intersil’s business model is unique – we’re focused on four high growth markets, we’re profitable with strong cash flow and a solid balance sheet, and we continue to invest in next generation products for very attractive markets.”

Business Outlook
“As a result of increasing demand for our products, we now expect second quarter revenue to increase between 6% to 8% sequentially and approximately 20% over the same quarter of 2001. We anticipate gross margins of 53% and adjusted earnings per share of approximately $.15,” said Williams. “For total calendar year 2002, we expect revenue growth in excess of 20% versus 2001, to between $580 million and $590 million, and adjusted earnings per share of approximately $.65 to $.67. These estimates exclude the impact of the Elantec acquisition, which we expect to be neutral to calendar year 2002 adjusted EPS.”

Investors and interested parties within the United States may listen to Intersil's conference call today at 1:30 p.m. Pacific/4:30 p.m. Eastern by dialing (888) 425-9158 and providing the operator with the pass code Intersil. International callers may connect to the call by dialing (212) 547-0478. A replay of Intersil’s conference call will be available for one week beginning at 3:30 p.m. Pacific/6:30 p.m. Eastern by calling (800) 486-4195 in the US or (402) 344-6793 Internationally. Confirmation code for the replay is 42402. A live webcast will also be available on Intersil’s Internet homepage at http://www.intersil.com/investor, and a replay will be available until May 1, 2002.

About Intersil
Intersil is a global leader in designing innovative high performance analog and wireless networking solutions that enable wireless access to video, data and voice in homes, offices and public places. Creating advanced power management products, Intersil provides reliable solutions for file servers, portable information appliances and over half of all desktop computer microprocessors manufactured today. With a rich high performance analog and mixed signal portfolio, Intersil brings added value in providing complete silicon, software and reference design solutions to new products that bring portable connectivity to people wherever they live, work or travel. Headquartered in Irvine, California, Intersil has offices in cities throughout the US, Europe and Asia. For more information about Intersil or to find out how to become a member of our winning team, visit the company's Web site and career page at: Intersil is a global leader in designing innovative high performance analog and wireless networking solutions that enable wireless access to video, data and voice in homes, offices and public places. Creating advanced power management products, Intersil provides reliable solutions for file servers, portable information appliances and over half of all desktop computer microprocessors manufactured today. With a rich high performance analog and mixed signal portfolio, Intersil brings added value in providing complete silicon, software and reference design solutions to new products that bring portable connectivity to people wherever they live, work or travel. Headquartered in Irvine, California, Intersil has offices in cities throughout the US, Europe and Asia. For more information about Intersil or to find out how to become a member of our winning team, visit the company's Web site and career page at: http://www.intersil.com.













This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements are based upon Intersil Corporation’s (“Intersil”) management’s current expectations, estimates, beliefs, assumptions, and projections about Intersil’s and Elantec Semiconductor, Inc.’s (“Elantec”) business and industry. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," “predicts,” "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," “should,” ‘would,” “potential,” “continue,” and variations of these words (or negatives of these words) or similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections, or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, our actual results and Elantec’s could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various risk factors. Important risk factors that may cause such material differences for Intersil, some of which may apply to Elantec, include, but are not limited to: the recent economic slowdown in the technology sector; the rate at which consumers adopt small handheld Internet appliances and portable computing devices in enterprises and in homes; the rate at which consumers purchase notebook computers; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Intersil’s wireless access, communications analog, and other analog technologies and products; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders; the ability of our customers to manage inventory; the loss of a key customer; the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; silicon wafer pricing and the availability and quality of our foundry capacity and raw materials; availability, pricing, and quality of third party foundry and assembly and test capacity and raw materials; fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party foundries and assembly and test facilities, and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly and test facilities; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies; the effectiveness of Intersil’s expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; ; the risks inherent in acquisitions, including the acquisition of Elantec (including integration issues; costs and unanticipated expenditures; changing relationships with customers, suppliers, and strategic partners; potential contractual, employment, and intellectual property issues; risks of not securing regulatory approvals; accounting treatment and charges; and the risks that the acquisition cannot be completed successfully, or that the anticipated benefits of the acquisition are not realized); intellectual property disputes, customer indemnification claims, and other litigation risks; Intersil’s ability to develop, market, and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a timely manner, as well as other risk factors. Intersil’s recently filed joint proxy statement/prospectus related to the merger with Elantec, Annual Report on Form 10-K, and other Intersil filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) (which you may obtain for free at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov) discuss some of the important risk factors that may affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this press release and Intersil undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements.

PRISM is a registered trademark, and PRISM GT, PRISM Indigo and Endura are trademarks of Intersil Americas Inc.
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Blue802 is a trademark of Silicon Wave, Inc.
Bluetooth is a trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc.
About Intersil
Intersil is a global leader in designing innovative wireless networking and high performance analog solutions that enable wireless access to video, data and voice in homes, offices and public places. Creating advanced power management products, Intersil provides reliable solutions for file servers, portable information appliances and over half of all computer microprocessors manufactured today. With a rich high performance analog and mixed signal portfolio, Intersil brings added value in providing complete silicon, software and reference design solutions to new products that bring portable connectivity to people wherever they live, work or travel. Headquartered in Irvine, California, Intersil has offices in cities throughout the US, Europe and Asia. For more information about Intersil or to find out how to become a member of our winning team, visit the company's Web site and career page at www.intersil.com.

This press release contains information relating to certain projections and business trends concerning the WLAN market that are forward-looking statements as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements are based upon management’s current expectations, estimates, beliefs, assumptions, and projections about our business and industry. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," and variations of these words or similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. Furthermore, any forward-looking statements and projections made by others in this press release are not adopted by Intersil Corporation (“Intersil”) and Intersil is not responsible for the forward-looking statements and projections of others. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various risk factors. Important risk factors that may cause such material differences for Intersil in connection with WLAN market include, but are not limited to: the rate at which consumers adopt small handheld Internet appliances and portable computing devices in enterprises and in homes; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Intersil’s wireless technologies and products, including our embedded LAN applications; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders; the loss of a key customer; the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; silicon wafer pricing and the availability and quality of foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; the effectiveness of Intersil’s expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; the risks inherent in acquisitions (including integration issues; costs and unanticipated expenditures; changing relationships with customers, suppliers, and strategic partners; potential contractual, employment, and intellectual property issues; risks of not securing regulatory approvals; accounting treatment and charges; and the risks that the acquisition cannot be completed successfully, or that the anticipated benefits of the acquisition are not realized); intellectual property disputes, customer indemnification claims, and other litigation risks; Intersil’s ability to develop, market, and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a timely manner, as well as other risk factors. Intersil’s recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, and other Intersil filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) (which you may obtain for free at the SEC’s Web site at www.sec.gov) discuss some of the important risk factors that may affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this press release and Intersil undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements. PRISM is a registered trademark of Intersil Americas Inc.
All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.