News & Events
Intersil Introduces New Laser Driver for DVD/CD Dual Writer Optical Disk Drives

-- New four-channel controller interface enables fast time-to-market drive designs

IRVINE, CA, July 22, 2002 – Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog and wireless networking solutions, today announced a new dual output laser driver targeted for the rapidly emerging DVD/CD dual writer optical drive market. The Elantec™ Product Group’s EL6119C laser driver enables optical disk drive manufacturers to quickly develop a DVD/CD dual writer drive from existing CD writer drive designs.

The EL6119C is pin compatible with the EL6219C and provides dual outputs (one for the CD laser and one for the DVD laser) for industry-standard controller interfaces. The EL6119C is positioned for the medium-performance (4X DVD, and 32X CD writer specifications) and fast DVD/CD laser driver products market.

“The EL6119C increases the breadth of our DVD/CD dual writer products by offering original equipment manufacturers an opportunity to quickly bring a dual writer product to market using Intersil’s existing controller IC architectures,” said Stephen P. Sacarisen, director of strategic marketing for Intersil’s Elantec Optical Products.

EL6119C Technical Features
This new dual four-channel (one read and three write levels) laser driver provides improved current control to both the CD and DVD laser diodes. Each channel has a separate enable pin for the DVD or CD driver output. This simplifies control and gives 100 percent compatibility with existing single channel designs.

The EL6119C incorporates two separate high frequency modulation (HFM) oscillators for up to 500 MHz and 100 mA, peak to peak, per output. The HFMs reduce laser-noise and read-noise error rates. Current outputs of the three write channels are 200 mA, 100 mA, and 100 mA, enabling CD-R speeds up to 32X in compliance with the Orange Specification Standard for CD-R and CD-R/W write strategies and all DVD formats.

The EL6119C is part of Intersil’s portfolio of write strategy programmable laser driver ICs that provides increased write-speed performance (up to 48X CD and 8X DVD) with increasing integration of system level functions.

“Our EL629X family is positioned for high-performance DVD/CD writer applications with 8X DVD and 48X CD writer specifications in the PC data storage market,” said Mohan Maheswaran, vice president and general manager of Intersil’s Elantec Product Group. “The EL629X family represent the future of Intersil’s laser driver family with increasing performance in ‘X’ speed for CD and DVD writing with increasing integration of system level functions.”

Price and Availability
The price for the EL6119C in a 32-pin leadless plastic package is $3.50 each for quantities of 10,000 units or more. Samples are available now.

Intersil + Elantec Means More for Our Customers
Intersil Corporation is a global semiconductor leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog and wireless networking solutions. The acquisition of Elantec Semiconductor, Inc., expanded Intersil’s product portfolios to address four fast growing markets – flat panel displays, optical storage (CD and DVD recordable), power management, and wireless networking. Intersil brings added customer value in providing complete silicon, software and reference design solutions to new products that enhance the computing experience for people wherever they live, work or travel. For more information about Intersil or to find out how to become a member of our winning team, visit the company's web site and career page at www.intersil.com

This press release contains 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 Intersil Corporation’s (“Intersil”) management’s current expectations, estimates, beliefs, assumptions, and projections about Intersil’s business and industry. Words such as “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “predicts,” ”believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “would,” “potential,” “continue,” and variations of these words (or negatives 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 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’s EL6119C product include, but are not limited to: the slowdown in the technology sector generally and the semiconductor industry specifically; the rate at which consumers adopt DVD/CD dual writer optical drives; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders; the ability of our customers to manage inventory; 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 and quality of our foundry capacity and raw materials; availability, pricing, and quality of third party foundry and assembly and test capacity and raw materials; fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party foundries and assembly and test facilities, and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly and test facilities; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies; the effectiveness of Intersil’s expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; the risks inherent in acquisitions, including the acquisition of Elantec Semiconductor, Inc. (including integration issues; costs and unanticipated expenditures; changing relationships with customers, suppliers, and strategic partners; potential contractual, employment, and intellectual property issues; risks of not securing regulatory approvals; accounting treatment and charges; and the risks that the acquisition cannot be completed successfully, or that the anticipated benefits of the acquisition are not realized); intellectual property disputes, customer indemnification claims, and other litigation risks; Intersil’s ability to develop, market, and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a timely manner; the quality of Intersil’s products and any repair or replacement costs; the risks and uncertainties associated with Intersil’s global operations, particularly in light of the war on terrorism; the effects of natural disasters, international conflicts and other events beyond our control; the level of orders received and the ability to fill those orders in a given fiscal quarter; and other factors. Intersil’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Report on Form 8-K, and other Intersil filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) (which you may obtain for free at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov) discuss some of the important risk factors that may affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this communication and Intersil undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements. Elantec is a trademark of Intersil Corporation or one of its subsidiaries.All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.