Press Releases
Intersil’s PRISM® II Wireless LAN Chip Set Marks Three-Millionth Shipment

Acceptance of Intersil’s solution continues to grow with leading customers

IRVINE, CA, November 27, 2000 — Intersil (NASDAQ: ISIL), the world’s leading provider of silicon technology for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), announced today that it has shipped its three-millionth PRISM^® II WLAN chip set. Intersil began the first production shipments of its award-winning PRISM II chip sets and development tools in October 1999.

"More than 50 of the world’s leading wireless networking manufacturers have incorporated the PRISM II chip set into over 100 of the best selling wireless products for the home and office," said Greg Williams, CEO and President of Intersil Corporation. "Our customer base continues to grow and no single customer currently represents more than 15% of our PRISM revenues. Our three-millionth PRISM II shipment milestone further validates Intersil’s number one position as the leading supplier of silicon technology for wireless networking and illustrates the tremendous growth of IEEE 802.11b wireless networking products in the enterprise and home markets."

PRISM II is the most highly integrated WLAN chip set on the market. It delivers wireless Ethernet networking with compliance to the IEEE’s 802.11b global standard. Optimized for high data rate (11 Mbps) performance, PRISM II-based systems are feature-rich and provide fast, reliable performance in all types of networking environments. Advanced design and process technologies reduce power consumption, design complexity and total system cost.

Intersil recently created two distinct product lines to meet the performance, cost and time-to-market needs of its customers. PRISM/work™ is the Enterprise and OEM product line that focuses on providing complete silicon solutions, software and development tools for wireless networking systems deployed in business environments. PRISM/home™ is the Home and PC product line providing wireless LAN silicon, software and development tools that will enable the consumer WLAN market.

PRISM/work™ and PRISM/home™ solutions include integrated circuits (ICs), software and firmware and provides systems manufacturers with highly integrated, low-cost solutions for designing 802.11b-compliant wireless networking capability into small, handheld computing devices such as laptop PCs, Personal Digital Assistants and Web Pad Internet appliance devices.

"Intersil will continue to develop hardware, firmware, software and design tools that allow our customers to get technically-advanced, full-featured and globally-viable systems to market in the shortest amount of time," added Williams. "We plan to introduce new generations of PRISM chip sets in the 2.4 GHz band and develop next-generation 5 GHz, 54 megabits-per-second solutions that will debut next year."

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, Siemens, SOHOware, SpectraLink, Symbol, and Zoom.

About Intersil
Intersil is a leading supplier of semiconductors, reference designs and software for wireless access and communications 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 home and enterprise WLAN 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 home and enterprise WLAN markets include, but are not limited to, the rate at which consumers adopt small handheld Internet appliances and wireless connectivity; 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; the inability to retain key employees; 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.