Silicon Laboratories Enters the Power Market with the World's Most Ad

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2005--Silicon Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:SLAB) today at the Portable Power Developer's Conference (PPDC) announced its entrance into the power market, offering the first of a family of products specifically designed for power control applications. Based on a patented architecture, the Si825x family of single-chip digital power supply controllers combines the flexibility and programmability of a DSP with the fast response of a hardware-based controller. This unique architecture enables the Si825x family of products to provide both digital power control and power management functions for most isolated and non-isolated switch-mode power supply topologies while consuming one-tenth the space and drawing less than 15 percent of the supply current of typical DSP solutions. Its industry-leading integration, performance and ease-of-use make the Si8250 the ideal digital control solution for high-performance system applications, such as telecom and datacom systems, computers, servers and industrial and medical equipment.
    "Silicon Laboratories has set the standard for digital power. By carefully considering the integration of high-performance mixed-signal elements, Silicon Laboratories made the Si825x a remarkably cost-effective solution for a wide range of power conversion applications," said Geof Potter, vice president, DC-DC Advanced Technology at Astec Power, an Emerson Network Power company and a leading global supplier of power conversion solutions. "We selected the Si825x due to a variety of advantages over alternate solutions, but one of the most significant features that influenced our decision is the ability to use firmware to tailor generic hardware platforms to specific end applications resulting in a better application fit, faster time-to-market and lower cost-of-development."
    The unique Si825x architecture incorporates high-speed processing hardware for real-time loop control and a FLASH-based system management controller. The high-bandwidth control loop updates at a 10 MHz rate and contains a dedicated analog-to-digital converter (ADC), programmable DSP filter engine, six-channel DPWM and programmable over-current protection (OCP) hardware detector. The system management controller performs fault detection and recovery, control loop optimization, such as dynamic loop compensation and dead-time adjustment, PMBus(TM) communication and external device management. The system management controller is based on a 50 MIPS 8051 CPU with 32K of FLASH and incorporates a 12-bit self-sequencing ADC, SMBus(TM) PMBus interface port, UART, 16-bit timers and additional PWM channels. The Si825x is specified to operate in the -40 to 125 degree C range.
    "Estimated to be more than a $17.4 billion market in 2009, the combined ac-dc and dc-dc power market is increasingly interested in digital control in power conversion and power management due to the growing complexity of system applications," said Jeff Shepard, president of The Darnell Group. "Silicon Laboratories has delivered a digital solution that offers the flexibility, adjustability and programmability required by customizable power supplies."
    Silicon Laboratories' Si825x is supported with an intuitive toolset that leverages users' existing analog design methodology, minimizing the digital control design learning curve. The toolset consists of a real-time firmware kernel (C-language source code), loop compensation and timing simulator/designer tools, system controller, configuration wizards and Silicon Laboratories' Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The Si825x development kit also includes a USB debug adaptor and complete half-bridge Si825x-based dc/dc converter. The kit comes complete with a PMBus interface protocol and external host interface hardware.
    "Silicon Laboratories applied its mixed-signal expertise to the power conversion market to offer a novel solution that fully allows the benefits of digital power to be realized," said Dan Artusi, president and chief executive officer of Silicon Laboratories. "This product family is the first in our road map of power products that will revolutionize the power market, saving customers design time and board space, reducing the system bill-of-materials and bringing higher levels of energy efficiency to the end user."

    Pricing and Availability

    The Si825x is available in a 5 x 5 mm 28-pin quad no lead (QFN) package or a 32-pin low profile quad flat package (LQFP). Pricing for the Si825x family starts at $2.49 in quantities of 1K. The Si825x is sampling now with general availability scheduled for Q3 2005.

    Silicon Laboratories Inc.

    Silicon Laboratories Inc. is a leading designer of high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) for a broad range of applications. Silicon Laboratories' diverse portfolio of highly integrated, patented solutions is developed by a world-class engineering team with decades of cumulative expertise in cutting-edge mixed-signal design. The company has design, engineering, marketing, sales and applications offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. For more information about Silicon Laboratories please visit www.silabs.com.

    Cautionary Language

    This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on Silicon Laboratories' current expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Silicon Laboratories believes that it is important to communicate the company's future expectations to investors. However, there may be events in the future that Silicon Laboratories is not able to accurately predict or control. For a discussion of these and other factors that could impact Silicon Laboratories' financial results and cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Silicon Laboratories' recent filings with the SEC, particularly the Form 10-K filed February 15, 2005.

    Note to editors: Silicon Laboratories and the Silicon Laboratories logo are trademarks of Silicon Laboratories Inc. All other product names noted herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.

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CONTACT: Silicon Laboratories Inc., Austin Tiffany Plowman, 512-464-9432 tiffany.plowman@silabs.com

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