News & Events
Intersil Announces Joint Development on IEEE 802.11g WLAN Client Reference Design

-- New chipset based on joint Intersil and Cisco reference design~-- planned to be offered to third party OEM's

IRVINE, CA, February 21, 2002 – Intersil (NASDAQ: ISIL), the world’s leading developer of silicon technology for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), and Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced collaboration on high speed WLAN client adapter reference designs that comply with the in-progress Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11g draft standard.

The joint client reference design, which will be compatible with Cisco WLAN infrastructures, is planned to be offered to third party original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of various WLAN devices. For the design, Intersil will contribute its physical layer (PHY) technology while Cisco will provide its media access control (MAC) architecture and enterprise-class client software feature set, including enhanced security.

The reference design based on the IEEE 802.11g draft standard offers OEMs everything they require to quickly and cost-effectively produce client devices that deliver data rates of up to 54 Mbps, offer backward compatibility with IEEE 802.11b devices and implement the IEEE 802.1x/EAP security standard. As the main aspects of the draft standard are now clearly established, industry adoption is expected to gain momentum in the second half of 2002. The Intersil PRISM-based high-speed WLAN design will support the two mandatory modulation techniques, Complementary Code Keying (CCK) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). Products are scheduled to appear in the second half of 2002.

“The WLAN market will continue its rapid growth, fueled by a rich suite of complementary WLAN technologies. Today’s dominant WLAN offerings, based on 802.11b, will continue to lead in cost and power; while the emerging products based on the existing IEEE 802.11a high speed standard operate in the broad, uncluttered 5GHz frequency band. 802.11g is an important complement to these standards, offering backward compatibility to, and higher speeds than, today’s 802.11b products,” said Bill Rossi, vice president and general manager of Cisco Systems’ Wireless Networking Business Unit. “Cisco is committed to offering versions of these technologies to address customers’ wide ranging requirements. This advances Cisco’s intention to enable WLAN manufacturers to develop client solutions that leverage the power of Cisco-equipped WLAN infrastructures.”

“This new agreement will accelerate efforts for us to offer a high speed, standards based solution in the 2.4 GHz band to our worldwide customer base,” said Greg Williams, president and CEO of Intersil. “The combination of Cisco’s worldwide networking leadership and Intersil’s innovative wireless technology will enable a new generation of high speed WLAN products.”

A key element of plans to bring IEEE 802.11g products to market is development of a joint reference design. The reference design, embodied in a chip set delivered by Intersil, will incorporate Cisco’s enhanced security and network support features as well as Intersil’s high rate 2.4 GHz PRISM GT™ chip set. 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 recent economic slowdown; 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 WLAN 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; intellectual property disputes, customer indemnification claims, and other litigation risks; Intersil’s ability to develop, market, and transition to volume production new wireless products and technologies in a timely manner, as well as other risk factors. Intersil’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, 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 is a trademark of Intersil Americas Inc.
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