News & Events
Intersil’s PRISM II Chip Set Powers NextComm’s New Wireless Products

New PC Card and Reference Designs for the wireless home and business

IRVINE, CA, March 19, 2001 – Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), the world’s leading developer of silicon technology for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), announced today that NextComm, Inc., an upcoming leader in wireless LAN systems, has integrated Intersil’s PRISM®II WLAN technology into its new wireless LAN card, Access Point and Residential Gateway Reference Designs.

Designed for a notebook PC, the NextComm PC card plugs into the notebook’s PCMCIA slot and is equipped with integrated dual diversity antennas. When used in conjunction with a wireless access point, the PC card delivers easy and dependable wireless connectivity at an 11 megabit-per-second (Mbps) data rate and is fully compliant with the IEEE 802.11b standard. It offers multiple layers of security, including spread spectrum signaling and encryption.

NextComm’s Residential Gateway and Access Point Reference Designs include a microprocessor-based platform, operating firmware, drive and utility software, and complete software and hardware documentation. The AP design features automatic channel selection at initiation that avoids interference from other wireless networks without user intervention. The Residential Gateway design features transparent protocol masquerading support that allows virtual private networks and is Internet game and multimedia/conference applications compliant.

"NextComm’s new Residential Gateway and Access Point Reference Designs give original equipment manufacturers simple and low-risk ways to quickly develop and deploy innovative 802.11b WLAN products to market," said Larry Ciaccia, vice president and general manager of PRISM Wireless Products at Intersil.

PRISM II is a highly integrated WLAN chip set that delivers wireless Ethernet networking with compliance to the IEEE’s 802.11b global standard. Advanced design and process technologies reduce power consumption, design complexity and total system cost.

"The PRISM II chip set’s high data rate (11 Mbps) and reliable performance in all types of networking environments allows NextComm to develop wireless networking solutions that are optimized for high-data-rate performance in compliance to the IEEE’s 802.11b global standard," said Jerry Wang, president and CEO of NextComm. "Wi-Fi certification ensures our customers that our new PCMCIA card will provide complete interoperability with any other Wi-Fi certified AP or wireless LAN cards."

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 chipsets holding the majority of market share." PRISM technology is designed to comply with the IEEE’s 802.11b 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 802.11b-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, Linksys, Nokia, Nortel, Samsung, Scientific-Atlanta, Siemens, SOHOware, Sony, SpectraLink, Symbol and Zoom.

About NextComm

NextComm is an upcoming leader in wireless LAN systems that encompass the enabling technologies supporting the growing convergence of data and voice in the "last 100 feet." NextComm is committed to delivering fully compatible products that are differentiated by innovative solutions of the size, power, and cost challenges. NextComm’s products will include radio systems, embedded communication protocol software, hardware reference solutions, semiconductor chip sets and semiconductor intellectual property. Currently NextComm’s focus is products compatible with the wireless connectivity standards: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a and Hiperlan/2.

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.

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PRISM is a registered trademark and 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.