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Intersil's Begins Sampling PRISM GT to Lead Partners — Innovative Two-Chip 802.11g WLAN Solution Provides True 54 Mbps Operation

-- PRISM GT™ is 100% backward compatible with existing 802.11b systems~-- Provides superior range and throughput over industry’s 802.11a or 802.11b+ WLAN products

IRVINE, CA, November 4, 2002 – Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog and wireless networking solutions, announced today it is sampling PRISM GT, its new 2-chip WLAN solution, with leading ODMs and OEMs. Designed to support the new 802.11g high-rate Draft Standard for Wireless Local Area Networking (WLAN) products operating in the 2.4 GHz band, PRISM GT provides twice the range and throughput for currently marketed 802.11a products and over three times the throughput of 802.11b+ products. Intersil has begun design efforts with Accton Technology Corporation, Actiontec Electronics, Inc., Ambit Microsystems Corporation, BroMax Communications, Z-Com, Inc., and other partners who are developing products for Intersil’s end customers.

“We have recently completed an extensive tour throughout the US and Asia demonstrating what we believe is the most integrated, highest performing solution for the draft 802.11g standard – PRISM GT. The response from customers has been very enthusiastic and multiple new design wins are underway. The range and throughput performance of our PRISM GT solution speaks for itself and we are very excited that PRISM GT is going to set the standard by which all other WLAN solutions will be judged,” said Larry Ciaccia, vice president and general manager of Intersil’s Wireless Networking Product Group.

Intersil has skillfully combined the 802.11g Draft Standard’s mandatory modulation schemes – Complementary Code Keying (CCK) used in 802.11b, and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) used in 802.11a – with its proven low-cost ZIF architecture in designing the PRISM GT chip set. These innovative technologies enable wireless networking systems to attain data transmission speeds up to 54 million bits per second (Mbps) while remaining 100 percent backward compatible to the existing installed base of over 30 million 802.11b systems worldwide. CCK ensures backward-compatibility with the installed 802.11b base, while OFDM provides the speed required for today’s high-bandwidth applications.

"Intersil has leveraged over five years of WLAN innovation and IC integration to develop PRISM GT,” added Ciaccia. “In both our PRISM GT chip set and PRISM Duette™ – our recently announced 802.11a, b, & g dual-band WLAN chip set – we have implemented a solution that is capable of delivering true 54 Mbps OFDM-based performance with seamless backwards compatibility with 802.11b.”

PRISM GT will enable a new generation of high-data-rate platforms for operation in the 2.4 GHz spectrum that delivers a three-fold increase in throughput over currently marketed 802.11b+. Lower power consumption is also realized compared to systems operating in the 5 GHz spectrum. These advantages will make PRISM GT an ideal solution for high-bandwidth enterprise applications, such as wireless video conferencing and large file transfers, as well as advanced home networking applications such as multi-channel CD-quality audio and DVD-quality video streaming.

The PRISM GT solution uses Intersil’s proven direct down conversion architecture developed for the PRISM® 3 chip set and the digital signal processing expertise gained in the development of 5 GHz 802.11a products. The transceiver integrates the receiver, transmitter, synthesizer and filters onto a single chip, and interfaces directly with the Baseband Processor to provide system designers with a complete end-to-end WLAN chip set solution. The Medium Access Controller (MAC) includes enhanced security and network management features.

The PRISM GT transceiver is an RF-to-baseband solution that takes high frequency radio waves and directly converts them to baseband signals during reception, or directly up-converts them from the low-level baseband signal to radio frequency during transmission. This architecture completely eliminates the need for the intermediate frequency (IF) stage found in most radios. Eliminating the IF stage reduces complexity, bill-of-materials (BOM) and manufacturing costs, as well as enabling smaller form factors appropriate for portable, handheld devices.

Intersil’s turnkey solutions approach will include mini-PCI and CardBus32-PC Card reference designs. Also offered will be all the development tools an original equipment manufacturer will need to quickly bring 802.11g WLAN products to market. The reference design kit includes the PRISM GT chip set, complete schematics, Gerber and layout files, BOM, manufacturing test utilities, PRISM lab test diagnostic tools, FAB drawings (PC board), antenna construction details, a technology license agreement, manufacturing, mechanical and assembly drawings.

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, and its Elantec Product Group’s (“Elantec”), 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 WLAN product group include, but are not limited to: the continued slowdown in the technology sector; the rate at which consumers adopt small handheld Internet appliances and portable computing devices in enterprises and in homes; the rate at which consumers purchase notebook computers with embedded wireless; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Intersil’s wireless access, technologies; 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 (including integration issues; costs and unanticipated expenditures; changing relationships with customers, suppliers, and strategic partners; potential contractual, employment, and intellectual property issues; ; risks 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, as well as other risk factors. Intersil’s quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, annual reports on Form 10-K, Current Reports 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. PRISM is a registered trademark and PRISM GT and PRISM Duette are trademarks of Intersil Americas Inc.
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