News & Events
Intersil Moves Ahead With 5 GHz Wireless LAN Solution

— New PRISM^® Indigo™ chip set raises the bar for WLAN performance and functionality
— Complete solution for 5 GHz broadband wireless devices

IRVINE, CA, June 19, 2001 — Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), the world’s leading developer of silicon technology for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), today announced its newest broadband WLAN chip set, PRISM Indigo, which delivers fast 54 megabit-per-second (Mbps) data rates to meet the escalating demand for high-speed wireless connectivity in the enterprise and home.

PRISM Indigo employs Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) technology and is designed to comply with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) 802.11a 5GHz standard. The PRISM Indigo product family expands Intersil’s portfolio of industry-leading WLAN integrated circuit (IC) solutions into the 5 GHz spectrum, providing WLAN product makers with a host of new applications opportunities. Furthermore, PRISM Indigo is engineered to meet WECA’s 5 GHz interoperability guidelines.

Leveraging Intersil’s extensive expertise in IC integration, systems design and process technology, PRISM Indigo couples best-in-class radio performance with low power consumption enabling a WLAN adaptor card bill-of-material (BOM) cost of about $60.00 based on a chipset price of $35. The complete solution suite includes an FCC-compliant reference design, developer’s kit and application software. Intersil is also developing firmware for PRISM Indigo that will incorporate the IEEE’s new Security and Quality of Service (QoS) enhancements for deployment of video streaming, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and multimedia related services for the home and enterprise. The enhancements provide several levels of performance specifically tailored to take maximum advantage of all available data rates from 6 to 54 Mbps.

"Wireless connectivity is the killer application of the new century — yielding significant productivity improvements and positive ROI in the enterprise — and Intersil is the leading supplier of WLAN chip sets for these applications," said Greg Williams, Intersil’s president and CEO. "Intersil’s current PRISM 2.4 GHz chip sets are the choice of leading companies and we intend to maintain our leadership as popularity for wireless networking grows and movement to higher speeds and higher frequencies continue. Our mission is to give our customers time-to-market advantage in both the 2.4 and 5 GHz spaces."

Driving Interoperability Standards to Ignite the Market
According to industry analyst firm Cahners In-Stat, the total WLAN chipset market by 2005 is expected to exceed $1.2 billion, with the residential market representing the fastest growing segment of the wireless LAN business. Intersil expects its new 5 GHz technology to significantly contribute to this market growth by complementing existing WLAN implementations and opening the door to new applications. Intersil’s 5 GHz, 54 Mbps systems can be installed in parallel with existing IEEE 802.11b-based 2.4 GHz systems with no interference. "We see 5 GHz as complementary technology to the large installed base of 2.4 GHz systems; the two can coexist with 5 GHz providing higher bandwidth for backplanes, bridging or sub-networks," said Larry Ciaccia, vice president and general manager of PRISM Wireless Products at Intersil.

In the enterprise, PRISM Indigo supports broadband infrastructure applications including building-to-building wireless bridging and high bandwidth end-user applications such as video conferencing and multimedia. Intersil’s 5 GHz WLAN technology is also well suited for home networking, where 54 Mbps wireless systems based on PRISM Indigo will support simultaneous, multi-channel video, voice and CD-quality audio throughout the home.

Working with the IEEE 802.11 Task Group G, Intersil is also leading the effort to develop a standard that will bring OFDM technology — the same as that adopted for 5 GHz 802.11a systems — to the 2.4 GHz band while preserving backward compatibility with existing IEEE 802.11b Complementary Code Keying (CCK) systems.

"We feel strongly that industry convergence on OFDM as the technology-of-choice for WLAN applications will expedite market adoption of both 2.4 and 5 GHz systems and establish the basis for eventual development of a new breed of radios that can operate in both bands," commented Ciaccia.

Technical Features
The PRISM Indigo chip set includes all of the ICs required to implement a 5 GHz WLAN design: Power Amplifier & Detector, Radio Frequency to Intermediate Frequency (RF/IF) Converter, IF to Baseband Converter & VCO (IF/BB) and Baseband Processor/ Medium Access Controller (BBP/MAC).

The ISL3987 is a 3-stage SiGe, 5-6 GHz Power Amplifier designed to maximize battery life while yielding the transmit power necessary for high performance, 802.11a-compliant, 54 Mbps wireless networking systems while operating in a high-density enterprise environment. The use of advanced micro lead frame (MLF) packaging and sophisticated SiGe technology leads to smaller size and greater power efficiency.

The ISL3687 is a highly integrated SiGe half duplex RF/IF Converter including Synthesizer and VCO. The ISL3687 directly interfaces with the ISL3787 IF/BB Converter through a single SAW filter for both transmit and receive functions. The ISL3687 combines all the necessary RF front-end functions into a small form factor MLF plastic package.

The ISL3787 is a half duplex IF-to-Baseband Converter including AGC, Synthesizer and on-chip VCO. The ISL3787 connects to the ISL3877 digital BBP/MAC by way of a low IF bandpass interface. The ISL 3787 also utilizes advanced MLF packaging and is manufactured in Intersil’s proprietary low-cost UHF2 communications process.

The ISL3877 is a highly integrated, single-chip BBP/MAC for use in IEEE 802.11a standard-based systems. The ISL3877 combines an OFDM Baseband Processor with an ARM^® core MAC and has two megabits of on-chip SRAM memory. It has a CardBus32 and PCI interface for miniPCI applications.

The integration of the BBP, MAC, memory and CardBus32 interface conserves significant board real estate, eliminating large numbers of I/O pins and reducing board complexity, size and manufacturing costs. The ISL3877 is designed to provide maximum performance with minimum power consumption.

Pricing and Availability
The PRISM Indigo 5GHz chip set solution will begin sampling in the fourth quarter of this year at a targeted price of $35 in 100K quantities.

The Global Wireless Market Embraces PRISM WLAN Technology
"Intersil is the number one manufacturer of wireless LAN chipsets and has been a driving force behind the success of WLAN today," said a May 2001 WLAN report from Cahners In-Stat Group. Since introducing the PRISM WLAN chip set in 1996, over 50 of the industry-leading companies including Actiontec, Alcatel, Cisco, Compaq, 3Com, Dell, D-Link, Linksys, Nokia, Nortel, Samsung, Scientific-Atlanta, Siemens, SOHOware, Sony, SpectraLink, Symbol and Zoom have incorporated PRISM chips in more than 100 product designs. 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.

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 WLAN 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 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 WLAN market include, but are not limited to: the rate at which consumers adopt small handheld Internet appliances and portable computing devices in enterprise and in homes; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Intersil’s wireless technologies and products, including our embedded LAN applications; 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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PRISM is a registered trademark of Intersil Americas Inc.

PRISM Indigo, PRISM/work and PRISM/home are trademarks of Intersil Americas Inc.

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

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