News & Events
Intersil Announces New Highly Integrated PRISM® Solution For Wireless-to-Broadband Connectivity
— New "World’s First" BBP/MAC family integrates two key functions into one chip
— New four-chip PRISM® WLAN solution will enable wide variety of home networking appliances
IRVINE, Calif. – August 11, 2000 – Intersil (NASDAQ: ISIL), the world’s leading developer of silicon technology for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), today announced a new family of wireless chips to support the development of a wide variety of small Internet information appliances that will give users speedy, wire-free access to data, video and Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. Critical to the development of these new wireless Internet-capable appliances—including WebPads, digital cameras, VoIP phones, and a variety of other such devices—is the availability of a very high-speed, full-featured and standards-compatible wireless module in half the size of current solutions.
Intersil has developed the world’s first single-chip baseband processor (BBP) and medium access controller (MAC) supporting wireless Ethernet speeds for use in IEEE 802.11 standard-based systems. The new BBP/MAC digital chips sit at the heart of the four-chip PRISM® 2.5 WLAN solution. Previous PRISM 11 megabit-per-second (Mbps) sets comprised five PRISM chips. The first three devices in the new BBP/MAC family will begin sampling in the fall.
"This is the first integrated baseband and MAC supporting 11 Mbps wireless in the world," said Greg Williams, Intersil’s president and CEO. "By reducing the number of chips, smaller form factors—such as miniPCI and CompactFlash—can be achieved, allowing solutions even beyond the current PCMCIA cards widely used today in laptop computers."
Further, many companies are working quickly to develop new varieties of already small hand-held, portable computers, WebPads and the like; these are battery-operated and will now feature a wireless link to home or office systems. "Increasingly, high-speed services—such as cable and DSL modems—are becoming available," said Williams. "That’s great in getting high performance to one point in a residence or workplace, but very quickly users will demand freedom to move around the space without any sacrifice in performance and without having to tie-down to fixed locations. That’s what we’re in the business of enabling."
About the new PRISM BBP/MAC Family:
The new PRISM BBP/MAC family starts with three highly integrated chips, all of which interface to existing PRISM front-end chip sets. The ISL3873 combines a PRISM baseband processor (the ISL3863) with a CHOICE MAC (the HFA3842), featuring a USB interface for customers deploying easy-use, "plug and play" solutions. The ISL3873P supplies a PCI interface, very important for embedded applications. The ISL3875 combines the same PRISM baseband with an ARM-based MAC, giving customers an easy customization route thanks to the industry standard and widely understood ARM, Ltd. core processor.
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. In a May 2000 report, the Cahners In-Stat Group called Intersil "the dominant force in the WLAN chip set marketplace with their PRISM chipsets holding the majority of market share." PRISM technology is designed to comply with the IEEE’s 802.11b global standard, and Intersil is a founding sponsor of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA), whose Wi-Fi™ brand is a mark of compatibility for 802.11b-based systems. PRISM chips are used in WLAN systems from industry-leading companies including Alcatel, Cisco, Nokia, Siemens, Compaq, 3Com, Dell, Nortel, Samsung, SpectraLink, Symbol Technologies and Zoom.
About Intersil
Irvine, California-based Intersil uses its 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.
This press release contains information relating to the growing demand for wireless products that are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are based upon management’s current expectations, estimates, beliefs, assumptions, and projections about our business and our 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 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 the forward looking statements as a result of various risk factors. Important risk factors that may cause such material differences for Intersil in connection with the wireless market include, but are not limited to, the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Intersil’s wireless technologies and products; 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 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.
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PRISM is a registered trademark of Intersil Corporation.
