News & Events
Intersil Endorses IEEE 802.11 Quality of Service Solution to Improve Multimedia Performance Over Wireless Networks

— Technology leaders collaborate on IEEE enhancements that are far superior to competing solutions

IRVINE, CA, January 5, 2001 &$151; Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), the world’s leading provider of silicon technology for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), announced today its endorsement of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Quality of Service (QoS) baseline for deployment of video streaming, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and multimedia related services for the home and enterprise.

Intersil, along with other WLAN industry leaders, endorses the IEEE 802.11 QoS baseline as being the most complete and highest performing QoS solution for home, enterprise and small office applications. The new enhancements, in combination with the IEEE 802.11 high-data-rates, provide a significant advantage to 802.11-based WLAN users by allowing immediate migration to new multimedia applications.

The IEEE document, referred to as a baseline, is crafted to provide several levels of performance specifically tailored to take maximum advantage of all available data rates from 11 megabits-per-second (Mbps) to 54 Mbps. No other proposal is capable of achieving these high data rates. The multi-tiered performance levels range from basic Internet applications to high quality video streaming and support for voice applications. Additionally, the 802.11 baseline is the only QoS solution that includes enhanced security functions.

"Wireless networks have made tremendous technological advancements in recent years and are now poised for widespread deployment in the home and office," said Larry Ciaccia, vice president and general manager of PRISM Wireless Products at Intersil. "The IEEE’s Quality of Service and security enhancements are far superior to competing QoS solutions. These enhancements solidify 802.11 as the protocol of choice enabling applications requiring support for voice, streaming multimedia and enhanced security."

The new QoS initiative, developed by the IEEE’s Medium Access Control (MAC) Enhancements Task Group, is a result of integrating technical input from industry leaders including AT&T, Lucent, Philips, Sharewave, Breezecom, Intel, Microsoft, 3Com, Cisco, Intersil, Atheros, Spectralink, Nokia, Epson, Sharp and Symbol.

The QoS improvements are implemented through software or firmware enhancements of the MAC in any 802.11 system. Manufacturers producing 802.11 systems will be able to add these enhancements into their devices and improve multimedia services without additional hardware or infrastructure costs.

"Intersil is proud to join these industry leaders in an effort to make WLANs a reliable, high-performance networking medium," added Ciaccia. "The new 802.11 QoS enhancements are a perfect compliment to our PRISM WLAN portfolio of 802.11-compliant chip sets.

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, Sony, SpectraLink, Symbol, and Zoom.

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 statements relating to certain projections and business trends concerning the WLAN and the video streaming VoIP, and multimedia-related services 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 WLAN and the video streaming VoIP, and multimedia-related services markets include, but are not limited to, the rate of deployment and acceptance of QoS; 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.

####

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.