News and Events
Intersil and PowerSmart Co-Developing Battery Management Solutions for Mobile Appliances
IRVINE, Calif., April 3, 2001—Intersil (NASDAQ: ISIL), a leading provider of power management solutions for PCs, file servers and portable information appliances, announced today that it has formed a strategic alliance with PowerSmart for the development of power management solutions that extend battery life in mobile appliances, PDAs and cell phones. Intersil and PowerSmart will engage in the joint development of ICs, firmware and software for smart battery, power management applications. In forming this alliance, Intersil will make a $5 million strategic investment in the company.
"The tremendous growth in wireless connectivity is driving the need for energy-efficient portable devices," said Rick Furtney, vice president and general manager of Intersil’s Power Management business. "PowerSmart’s complementary technologies help accelerate the development of products for battery-powered mobile applications. They bring a depth of understanding in cell chemistries, smart battery electronics and charging systems that complements our expertise in power IC development. Our plan is to leverage this synergistic relationship with PowerSmart to provide our customers a significant competitive advantage in this fast-growing, portable device market."
PowerSmart Inc. designs and manufacturers the industry’s highest accuracy smart battery ICs, charger ICs and modules for portable PCs and smart handheld devices. PowerSmart’s solutions provide the highest battery performance measurement accuracy available, enabling up to a 30-percent increase in battery runtimes when compared to dumb batteries. PowerSmart employees and Intel are the original co-authors of the Smart Battery Systems & System Management Bus (SBS-SMBus) specifications, the only open system-level specifications for smart batteries that are available today.
"The entire PowerSmart team is pleased to partner with the Intersil Power Management team on the co-development of new products for the rapidly-expanding mobile appliance marketplace," said Norm Allen, president and CEO of PowerSmart. "This is a synergistic fit, and combined resources of PowerSmart and Intersil will allow customers to move quickly and take advantage of significant wireless and wired mobile market opportunities. Next generation mobile appliances require maximum battery performance from advanced chemistries and smaller battery packs. The alliance of Intersil and PowerSmart will allow us to quickly develop the battery management ICs needed to maximize device runtime and battery life."
Intersil Power Management Technology
The Intersil Endura™ product family consists of leading power management solutions for desktop and mobile PCs, workstations, Internet appliances, RAID systems and high-availability servers. The Endura family includes high-efficiency solutions that are used in portable PCs and mobile information appliances as well as home gateway products. Intersil’s Power Management ICs are tailored for the power demands of the current lightning-fast microprocessors and high-reliability network servers. Intersil’s Endura DC-DC converters power nearly one-third of the world’s Pentium® III and Pentium® 4-class microprocessors and half of all AMD Athlon™ microprocessors. The company is the first to introduce a complete cost effective power solution for next generation PCs that use a multiphase power configuration to achieve microprocessor speeds greater than 1GHz.
About PowerSmart
PowerSmart, Inc., develops and manufactures smart battery and charger ICs for use with all battery chemistries. Also, PowerSmart provides complete modules, supporting software tool kits, evaluation kits, as well as complete battery management subsystems for larger batteries and battery arrays. In addition, the PowerSmart Systems Division develops complete battery monitoring subsystems for hybrid electric vehicles and telecommunications power back up applications. PowerSmart’s "system on a chip" smart battery ICs and battery modeling algorithms are recognized as the most advanced in the industry. Engineering design, software and smart battery implementation services are offered. PowerSmart locations include its headquarters in Shelton, CT, Microelectronics Division in Plano, TX, and Systems Division in Needham, MA. For more information visit the company’s Internet homepage at www.powersmart.com.
About Intersil
Intersil is a leading supplier of semiconductors, reference designs and software for wireless access and communications analog markets. Intersil applies analog, mixed-signal and radio frequency (RF) expertise to products that enable wireless access to broadband media; provide reliable power management for PCs, files servers and portable information appliances; and convert analog and digital signals in cellular and Internet infrastructure. For more information about Intersil, visit the company's Internet homepage at www.intersil.com.
This press release contains information that constitute 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. 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 Intersil Holding Corporation’s ("Intersil’s") power management products include, but are not limited to, the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Intersil’s current, and next-generation power management products and technology; the adoption of a particular cellular standard; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders; 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 of foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; intellectual property disputes; as well as other risk factors detailed from time to time in Intersil’s filings with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. 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.
Endura is a trademark of Intersil Corporation.
Athlon is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Pentium is a trademark of Intel Corporation.
