Intersil (ISIL) Drives Innovation in Several End-Markets

The basics of operating in the high-performance analog market include consistent introduction of new and innovative products that offer something more than that currently available in the market. The degree of innovation drives ASPs and margins for analog companies and also serves as a general indicator of the life of the products.

Intersil introduced several new products into the high-end consumer market. The new high frequency synchronous buck regulator is designed to power transmission power amps in cell phones. It also introduced a digital output sensor with special options that allow low light sensitivity and good spectral response even in sunlight.

In the 1st quarter, the company secured its first design win in the SERDES family, revenue from which will be more of a late 2009, early 2010 story. More recent introductions include a family of high-voltage LCD level shifters for LCD panels using high frame refresh rates. This is expected to improve viewing angles in televisins and LCD monitors.

In the computing space, Intersil recently introduced an integrated power solution for AMD’s Phenom processors (for desktops) and Opteron Barcelona processors (for servers). In Q1, it also introduced core power solutions for Montevina, Intel’s next generation platform for notebooks.

The company also introduced and started shipping its core regulators developed to support Intel’s (INTC) DR 11.1 platforms for the Eagle-Lite desktop platform. In the last quarter, management announced several products targeted at the industrial market.

The first of these was a chopper stabilized amplifier offering best-in-class performance in terms of speed, noise and power consumption. The product has application in a wide range of industrial, factory automation and medical markets. Management also announced that two of its video drives had been designed into projectors. These new drives are expected to be particularly useful for video conferencing equipment, enabling reduction in board space and and total component cost. Revenue generation from the video drives are expected to continue through 2008 and into 2009.

In the communications market, ISIL recently added to its family of single-phase buck controllers targeted at a range of telecom and industrial applications. It also started shipping the first generation LNB power controller for satellite TV receivers. This environment-friendly, cost-efficient product is superior to the currenty available discrete solutions.

Computing remains one of the most important end-markets for Intersil, and the company is strongly positioned in the notebook, desktop and server segments. As may be expected, notebook sales are outgrowing desktop sales, and notebooks are currently management’s focus area.

Additionally, Intersil has been ahead of the competition in winning sockets on new platforms. When Intel transitioned from the CoreDuo (Napa) to the Centrino (Santa Rosa) platform, the company seized the opportunity to raise the dollar content. This was possible because the CoreDuo used only the company’s one-, two- and three-phase core power, battery charger and controller, while the Santa Rosa also used its system regulator, I/O controllers, memory and graphics controllers, as well as its new battery chargers. Since Santa Rosa already takes care of all the parts, Montevina will not increase the dollar content through the introduction of additional parts.
 
Sejuti Banerjea contributed to this report.

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