Features - Storage Innovations:

EXABYTE CORPORATION ANNOUNCES LTO-2 TAPE LIBRARIES

Exabyte Corporation, a performance and value leader in tape backup systems, has announced support of IBM LTO Ultrium 2 tape drives in its automation products: the entry-level Exabyte 110L tape autoloader, the midrange Exabyte 221L and the scalable Magnum20 tape libraries.

Exabyte LTO libraries with IBM LTO Ultrium 2 tape drives provide twice the capacity and more than double the performance of the previous generation Exabyte LTO libraries, meeting the needs of users whose data storage requirements are quickly outgrowing their current solutions. For those users who have already invested in Exabyte LTO libraries, drives can easily be upgraded in the field to next-generation LTO technology without any additional investment in robotics systems. IBM LTO Ultrium 2 tape drives are backwards read and write compatible with the first generation LTO tape media, helping to protect the media investment users have made in prior tape library applications. Technology enhancements that help optimize data throughput and increase storage capacity in the IBM LTO Ultrium 2 tape drive include digital speed matching, enabling the drive to adjust its native data rate to closely match the host data rate; a larger 64MB buffer to mask the impact of data rate fluctuations; and an enhanced data compression scheme resulting in increased storage capacity. Enhanced servo positioning and an improved head design provide improved data protection.

Exabyte's line of LTO automation solutions is designed to support the needs of a variety of environments, from desktop to enterprise applications. Ranging from 10-cartridge autoloaders to 150-cartridge library solutions, users are now offered automated data storage solutions providing up to 60TB of capacity and throughput of up to 1.7TB/hr.

"The technology IBM delivers in its LTO Ultrium 2 tape drives combined with Exabyte's line of feature-rich automation solutions brings users the best in both price and performance," said Tom Ward, president and CEO at Exabyte. "When users consider their data storage requirements and the bandwidth capabilities of their networks, they find a variety of solutions offered by Exabyte to address those needs. Whether users have slower-bandwidth servers that support the speed of LTO-1 drives or higher-bandwidth systems that can utilize the speed of LTO-2 drives, they can still benefit from the features, flexibility, scalability and superior price-performance value of Exabyte's line of LTO automation solutions."

"IBM's superior tape technology with the IBM LTO Ultrium 2 drives can help address the requirements of customers today, and in the future," said Glen Allen, business unit executive for OEM tape technology, IBM Systems Group. "The open format technology provides genuine value to customers."

The Exabyte110L autoloader is the first entry-level automation system to integrate the new IBM LTO Ultrium 2 tape drives. The compact and affordable 110L is an ideal first step into automated LTO storage. It supports network backup and restore, remote storage and automated archiving. The 110L autoloader offers management capabilities typically found in larger, more expensive SCSI-based libraries, yet at an entry-level price.

Users who require larger capacity and faster throughput over the 110L autoloader, Exabyte offers the 221L tape library. The 221L can be configured with one or two LTO tape drives and up to 21 data cartridges and is available in either SCSI or native Fibre Channel configurations. With a 2Gbps native Fibre Channel option, the 221L is ideal and cost-effective for use in SAN applications.

For larger enterprises, the Exabyte Magnum20 LTO library offers the ultimate in scalability, providing immediate access to all of its 150 cartridges slots for the price of a typical 20-slot library. Occupying just 20u of rack space, Magnum20 offers the highest-density midrange LTO automation solution on the market, conserving valuable data center rack space. Features such as a native 2Gbps Fibre Channel interface allow users to utilize the library in the most flexible, cost-effective manner across a variety of applications. Magnum20's four-way partitioning feature allows users to operate the Magnum20 as up to four separate virtual libraries, utilizing a mixture of LTO-1 and LTO-2 tape drives in the same physical unit. This feature makes the Magnum20 ideally suited for users starting to integrate LTO-2 drives into their automated backup scheme and into their existing Magnum20 LTO-1 tape libraries. The partitioning features also allow users to run a mixture of LTO-1 SCSI and/or Fibre Channel drives as well as the IBM LTO Ultrium 2 SCSI and/or Fibre Channel drives on Intel and Unix platforms from the same automation device. Magnum20 provides from 2TB to 60TB of capacity and throughput from 108 GB/hr. to over 1TB/hr. and, at a base price of $16,499, is the most cost-effective LTO automation solution available in the industry.

LTO-2 tape drives provide a native capacity of 200GB (400GB compressed) per cartridge and a native transfer data of 247 GB/hr. Exabyte LTO libraries will be available with IBM LTO Ultrium 2 drives beginning in April. (Capacity and transfer rate specifications assume 2:1 compression.)

About Exabyte Corporation

Exabyte Corporation provides innovative tape storage solutions to customers whose top buying criteria is value -- maximum performance, quality and ease-of-use at a price they can afford. Exabyte is a recognized value-leader in tape storage and automation solutions for workstations, midrange servers and enterprise storage networks, and has been an industry innovator since 1987. Exabyte's high-performance Mammoth-2 (M2) tape drives for the mid-range market have a strong performance-price ratio, Exabyte's VXA-2 tape drive technology provides DDS users with significantly higher capacity and performance at a similar price point, and Exabyte's storage automation products are rugged, reliable automation solutions for users of VXAtape, MammothTape and LTO (Ultrium).

Exabyte has a worldwide network of OEMs, distributors and resellers that share Exabyte's commitment to value and customer service, including partners such as IBM, Compaq, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Bull, Toshiba, Apple Computer, Tech Data, Digital Storage Inc, Ingram Micro and Arrow Electronics.

For additional information, call 1-800-EXABYTE or visit them on the Web at www.exabyte.com. For investor relations inquiries, e-mail investor@exabyte.com.

Contact: Kelly Beavers, VP of Marketing, of Exabyte Corporation, 303-417-7225, kjb@exabyte.com.