Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog and wireless networking solutions, today announced that its new write-strategy blue laser diode drivers have been selected by Plasmon Corporation for use in their UDO data storage drives. Intersil’s Elantec™ laser driver ICs help facilitate cost-effective, high performance, high capacity data recording and archiving in Plasmon’s UDO drives. “Plasmon’s selection of our new write-strategy blue laser drivers for use in their high capacity storage systems affirms Intersil’s continued leadership and outstanding customer support in optical storage technology,” said Stephen P. Sacarisen, director of Strategic Marketing for Intersil’s Elantec Optical Storage Products. “Our EL6900 blue laser drivers helped make this UDO application possible and solidifies Plasmon’s position as a leading provider of professional optical storage solutions. We are at the threshold of a very exciting future for blue laser technology and look forward to expanding our technology leadership through partnerships with leading companies such as Plasmon.”

“Intersil has long been recognized as the industry leader offering state-of-the-art products in laser driver technology for optical storage products,” said Dr Chris Harris, president of Plasmon, Inc. “Intersil’s expertise in laser drivers will enable Plasmon to offer UDO products that leverage the increased storage capabilities of blue laser technology.”

Intersil’s Elantec laser diode driver family provides improved waveform fidelity, increased output current, lower power dissipation and reduced noise to enable higher speed CD-Read and Read/Write and DVD-Recordable designs. To learn more about Intersil’s optical storage (CD and DVD recordable) devices and solutions, visit the Intersil Web site at http://www.intersil.com/cda/application_e/0,1293,36,00.html

Plasmon and Ultra Density Optical (UDO) Technology

UDO is the next generation of 5.25" professional optical storage technology. It utilizes blue laser and phase change media recording technology to provide a quantum leap in data storage densities. Plasmon’s first generation UDO products will offer 30GB in storage capacity and are scheduled to ship in August 2003. Future generations will increase capacity to 60GB and 120GB and will provide full backward read compatibility. UDO is the application of Blu-ray consumer recording technology to the professional optical storage market. Blu-ray is the proposed successor to DVD and provides the storage capacity needed to record a 2-hour HDTV video onto a single-sided disk.