News & Events
Intersil Announces Market Milestone: PRISM Shipments Exceed 1.5 Million Units

PALM BAY, FL, February 2, 2000 – Intersil Corporation, the world’s leading provider of silicon technology for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), today announced it shipped over 1.5 million individual integrated circuits (ICs) from its award winning PRISM® portfolio during the first six months of its fiscal year (July 1 though December 31, 1999).

The company cites several factors driving increased sales of wireless local area networking (WLAN) equipment: lower prices achieved by the development of high-performance, low-cost chip set technology; establishment of a global standard for delivering wired Ethernet-equivalent data rates; and the entry of computer, networking and telecommunications industry giants into the wireless networking market.

These favorable market conditions helped Intersil substantially increase PRISM shipments over the past two fiscal quarters. Sales of its PRISM IC family jumped 198 percent in the second quarter (ending Dec. 31, 1999) as compared to the same quarter in fiscal 1999. Intersil’s PRISM chips have won more than 100 design-ins, including many with leading industry heavyweights. These include Compaq, Nokia, Siemens, 3Com, Dell, Samsung, Nortel and Aironet, recently acquired by Cisco.

"We’re committed to the vision of ‘Internet Anywhere’ and support the build-out of high-rate wireless networks in corporate offices, small businesses, homes, and public structures such as hotels and airports," said Larry Ciaccia, vice president and general manager of the PRISM Wireless Products business at Intersil. "Our mission is to develop the most advanced, highest performance, lowest power and most tightly integrated circuits that are optimized for high-rate wireless applications. We’re further committed to developing hardware, firmware, software and design tools that allow our customers to get the most advanced, full-featured and globally-viable systems to market in the shortest amount of time."

Since introducing PRISM in 1996, Intersil has continued to make technological improvements to its PRISM chip set to further reduce bill-of-material (BOM) cost and drive higher levels of performance. The original PRISM I consisted of eight ICs and achieved data rates of only 2 megabits-per-second (Mbps). PRISM II, which went into production last fall, consists of only five ICs – three RF ICs and two in the digital portion – and delivers 10BaseT Ethernet-equivalent data rates of 11Mbps.

To further drive the market, Intersil plans to continually introduce next generations of PRISM chip sets, focusing on reducing costs by sweeping more functionality into better performing, more highly integrated chips. Such highly integrated chips will allow the manufacture of smaller wireless products with increasingly higher performance and better power efficiency – vital since many such mobile products must operate on batteries.

"We’re keenly aware that our customers must meet certain retail price points to stimulate wide acceptance of wireless LAN systems," Ciaccia said. "Continuous integration and architecture advancements are necessary to reduce BOM costs so those retail targets can be met. To achieve this, we plan to continually introduce new generations of PRISM, each further decreasing BOM cost and power consumption, critical factors for deploying small, battery-operating wireless appliances."

The first PRISM II-based adapter cards are expected to retail in the neighborhood of $140 to $160 when they hit the market over the next several months. As volumes build and economies of scale take effect, many hope to see retail prices at the $100 price point, which will likely drive further demand for wireless. "Keeping the demand growing means we must continue to improve the design, add performance features, lower power consumption and decrease the cost for our customers," Ciaccia said.

Adoption of PRISM WLAN Technology
Since introducing the PRISM WLAN chip set in 1996, over fifty companies have incorporated PRISM chips in more than 100 product designs. PRISM technology is designed to comply with the IEEE’s 802.11 global standard and Intersil is a founding sponsor of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA), whose "Wi-Fi" brand will ensure compatibility between various 802.11-based systems. Intersil has a continuing program to rapidly introduce better performing, more highly integrated generations of PRISM chip sets and supporting design tools. PRISM chips are used in WLAN systems from industry-leading companies including Nokia, Siemens, Compaq, 3Com, Nortel, Samsung, Dell, Zoom, Cisco/Aironet, and SpectraLink. Experience the latest PRISM technology at the upcoming Wireless Symposium & Exhibition in San Jose, Calif., February 22-24.

About Intersil
Intersil Corporation uses semiconductor expertise to enable highly integrated voice, data and video communications. Intersil's integrated communications portfolio includes PRISM® Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) chip sets that enable mobile connectivity products for the home and office; analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for broadband access to wireless and wired Wide Area Networks (WANs); and power management products that enable 24x7 reliability in network servers, next generation PCs and information appliances. For more information about Intersil, visit the company's Internet homepage at www.intersil.com.

PRISM is a registered trademark of Intersil Corporation.