News & Events
Intersil Announces New PRISM Brand Devoted<br>to Enterprise Wireless LAN Technology

— PRISM/work™ delivers complete WLAN design solutions for enterprise networking and OEMs

IRVINE, CA, December 13, 2000 — Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), the world’s leading developer of silicon technology for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), today announced a new brand to signify the world’s highest performance, standards-compliant WLAN designs tailored specifically for the enterprise and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) market.

PRISM/work reflects Intersil’s commitment to remain the world’s leading provider of solutions to industry leading companies that supply enterprise wireless networks. Wireless networks are being widely deployed in the enterprise setting to accommodate a rapidly growing mobile work force.

"Our PRISM/work team will focus on the specific requirements of the enterprise and OEM markets, which include standards compatibility, Ethernet-equivalent data rates, robust throughput and reliability, enhanced security and network management," said Larry Ciaccia, vice president and general manager of PRISM Wireless Products at Intersil. "The PRISM/work portfolio will immediately address the high-rate IEEE 802.11b 2.4 GHz market, with 5GHz solutions planned for next year. Whatever the spectrum, we’ll continue to deploy complete solutions optimized for price and performance."

The PRISM^® II and 2.5 WLAN chip sets are the heart of the PRISM/work portfolio, which include reference designs, evaluation kits, firmware and software in addition to the highly integrated silicon. PRISM II delivers an 11 megabit-per-second (Mbps) data rate and is fully compliant with the IEEE 802.11b standard. The PRISM II reference design is Wi-Fi™ certified by the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA), thus ensuring multi-vendor interoperability.

Intersil’s PRISM technology is currently the world’s leading silicon design for enterprise wireless LAN products. PRISM chips are used in enterprise and public LAN systems from industry-leading companies including Cisco, 3Com, Nokia, Nortel, Siemens and Symbol.

"Our enterprise and OEM customers demand exceptionally high performance in terms of range, data rates, interoperability and security. In addition, access point solutions must provide load balancing and roaming, which enable multiple access points to provide seamless campus-wide coverage," said Jim Zyren, director of Enterprise and OEM Products. "Our strategy is to provide world-class complete WLAN solutions to ensure that our customers can lead the market with standards-based solutions providing leading edge data rates."

Intersil plans to continue to develop new generations of PRISM solutions for the 2.4GHz band that provide the most advanced and cost effective solutions for WLAN applications and recently announced its 5GHz product roadmap targeted at the IEEE 802.11a and HIPERLAN/2 standards.

Intersil also recently announced a distinct brand for home wireless networking products. PRISM/home™ is designed to deliver low-cost, high performance wireless networking solutions for the emerging home networking market.

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, Cahners In-Stat Group called Intersil "the dominant force in the WLAN chip set marketplace with their PRISM chip sets holding the majority of market share." 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 is a mark of compatibility for 802.11-based systems. PRISM/work™ and PRISM/home™ products are used in WLAN systems from industry-leading companies including Alcatel, Cisco, Compaq, 3Com, Dell, D-Link, Nokia, Nortel, Samsung, Scientific-Atlanta, Siemens, SOHOware, SpectraLink, Symbol, and Zoom.

About Intersil
Intersil is a leading supplier of semiconductors, reference designs and software for wireless access and communications 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 statements relating to certain projections and business trends concerning the enterprise and OEM 2.4GHz and 5GHZ WLAN markets 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 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 Holding 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 the enterprise and OEM 2.4 GHz and 5GHz WLAN markets include, but are not limited to, the rate at which consumers adopt small handheld Internet appliances, 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 ("SEC") which you may obtain for free at the SEC’s website www.sec.gov. 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.

PRISM/work and PRISM/home are trademarks of Intersil Corporation.

Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance.

All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.