News & Events
Intersil Begins Shipping New CommLink™ Modem Chip Set Enabling 155 Megabit-Per-Second Broadband Wireless Access Networks

IRVINE, CA, April 30, 2001 — Intersil (NASDAQ: ISIL), a leading developer of silicon technology for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA), today announced it is shipping its new CommLink™ OC-3 Modem chip set and reference design to customers who are designing broadband wireless Internet and cellular backhaul infrastructure equipment.

Intersil's new ISL87060 chip set—the first product resulting from its strategic acquisition of Scottsdale-based SiCOM, Inc. last October—is designed to enable low-cost, rapid deployment of point-to-point digital radio systems that support wireless transmission of voice, data and video at OC-3/STM-1 speeds of 155 megabits-per-second (Mbps). Production shipments have begun to fulfill initial customer orders.

"Intersil has emerged as a leading innovator in software defined radio technology for cellular base stations with its CommLink™ channelizer DSPs and data converters," said Ken Schultz, vice president and general manager of Intersil's Broadband Wireless Access business. "With the launch of our new OC-3 software programmable modem chip set, we're enabling equipment manufacturers to develop radios for the wide range of frequency plans and capacities required throughout the world."

Applications for the ISL87060 chip set include digital microwave radios for interconnection of cellular base stations, high capacity Internet infrastructure, point-to-consecutive-point wireless ring networks and connection of cellular infrastructures to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The reference design supports a wide range of standard data rates, from 4x T1/E1 through OC-3/STM-1 (155Mbps).

"As cellular service providers begin to upgrade their base transceiver stations to support mobile high-speed data access, the wireless backhaul radios will need to be upgraded as well," said Allen Nogee, Senior Analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group. "Intersil's new OC-3 modem chipset provides infrastructure equipment manufacturers with a complete solution for getting these high performance radios to market that can support a combination of voice and Internet access backhaul for cellular networks."

To help minimize its customers' engineering effort and facilitate quick time-to-market, the new chip set is supported by a full suite of design tools. Customers designing the chip set into point-to-point microwave designs can purchase the ISL83700 modem evaluation kit that allows original equipment manufacturers to configure, monitor and test the performance of Intersil's ISL8760 modem chip set in a lab environment.

Product Features
Intersil's BWA OC-3 modem chipset solution is designed from the ground up to optimize wireless link capacity, thus reducing the need to incorporate expensive power amplifiers and tuners that often dominate the cost of broadband fixed wireless networks. As a result, this design approach reduces the overall Bill of Material (BOM) cost of non-modem elements in the digital radio.

The new digital modem solution includes the company's ISL87060 Application Specific Standard Product (ASSP) chip set, the ISL837030 reference design and the ISL83700 Modem Evaluation Kit. The complete system allows equipment manufacturers to build point-to-point radio designs that cost-effectively increase the data capacity of fixed broadband wireless networking equipment.

"Intersil's highly-programmable solution can be utilized across multiple product platforms to help reduce design-in costs and time-to-market," Schultz continued. "Its rich feature set eliminates the need for customers to develop custom ASICs in-house and allows rapid prototyping and development."

The ISL87060 chip set consists of two Integrated Circuits (ICs)—the ISL87060MIK modulator chip and the ISL87060DIK demodulator chip. The modulator chip accepts input data bytes, performs encoding, constructs the waveform, applies pulse shaping and generates digital baseband data outputs. The demodulator chip receives digital baseband data inputs, performs signal conditioning, symbol timing, carrier tracking, adaptive equalization and decoding to produce data byte and clock outputs.

Price and Availability
Intersil's BWA modem product suite is now available in production quantities. Both ICs in the chip set (the ISL87060 modulator chip and the ISL87060 demodulator chip) are available for $125 each in minimum 1K quantities. In order to easily evaluate the chipset in radio systems, customers can purchase an evaluation kit, which is available for $3500. In order to implement the chipset in a radio design, customers must first purchase the reference design, which is available for $20,000, and execute a license agreement.

About Intersil BWA Products
Intersil acquired Scottsdale, Arizona-based SiCOM in October 2000, and today offers broadband modem silicon solutions, reference designs and software to equipment manufacturers serving fixed wireless infrastructure and access markets. Intersil's BWA portfolio also includes the company's popular CommLink™ family of software-programmable digital radio chips and CMOS data converters designed specifically for current and next generation cellular base stations.

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 relating to certain projections and business trends concerning the BWA 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 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 BWA market include, but are not limited to: the development, maturation, and commercial viability of the broadband wireless Internet; the rate of development of cellular backhaul infrastructures; the rate at which consumers adopt small handheld Internet appliances and portable computing devices; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Intersil's BWA 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 Web site 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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