LAGUNA HILLS, Calif.,... March 13, 2000 - Ultera Systems, the leading tape array controller and tape array system supplier, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Kingswell-Skyhawk AB, a leading provider of high-performance storage solutions, support and services in the European marketplace. The deal closely follows a similar agreement with Australian-based Digital Tape Solutions.

U.K.-based Kingswell recently acquired Sweden-based Skyhawk to form Kingswell-Skyhawk AB. The merged company will resell and distribute the full line of Ultera’s Tape RAID arrays to its European customer base.

"The time has come for tape arrays given the extraordinary growth in the disk storage market over the past year and the need for high performance backup has become a critical corporate requirement. This demand has brought a record number of resellers (domestic and international) to Ultera Systems because of our technology leadership and one-of-a-kind tape RAID product line," said Fred Bedard, Ultera Vice President, Sales and Marketing. "Kingswell-Skyhawk AB is an ideal international partner for Ultera and will dramatically expand our presence throughout Europe."

Mike Kingswell, founder of Kingswell, said that Ultera’s tape array controller technology is in line with what Kingswell customers are demanding – supercharged backup solutions. "We are convinced that Ultera has developed products encompassing the utmost in innovative technology for data protection and we are happy to have the opportunity to offer Ultera tape array systems throughout Europe."

Ultera Systems provides unprecedented tape performance with its innovative line of tape array controllers. Ultera controllers can be configured for RAID-1 operation, mirroring data to a pair of drives, or RAID-3 with data and parity information striped across a set of two or four drives. This configuration offers fault-tolerance, allowing tape backup operations to continue even in the event of a drive or media failure, as well as the fastest available performance by utilizing the cumulative bandwidth of all attached tape drives. An optional parity drive can be added to maximize reliability of the tape array.

Ultera’s tape controller line includes:

Striper Series: high-end tape array controller that stripes data across up to five independent parallel array channels allowing for fast – up to 40 MB/sec. – flexible and highly reliable data protection.

LibraryMaster™ Series: extends the tape array paradigm to the library level, creating an array of multi-drive libraries utilizing Ultera’s third-generation Tape RAID technology to provide the highest tape performance, backup/restore automation and fault-tolerant data protection while complementing existing tape technologies.

Imager™ Series: allows simultaneous creation of up to five identical backup tapes in real time with no additional system overhead or software changes necessary.

Shadow Master™ Series: provides real-time data mirroring across multiple tape loaders and libraries for the ultimate in data reliability and disaster recovery.

About Kingswell-Skyhawk AB
Kingswell Computer Company is a leading provider of high-performance, open-system data storage solutions together with support and services. Its mission is to enable customers to store, protect and make available computer data through world-class solutions and services. The company recently merged with Skyhawk Computer Systems AB, a leading storage specialist of storage solutions in the Swedish market. The new company, Kingswell-Skyhawk AB, continues to offer support, services and expertise throughout Europe. For more information, call +44 01604 767636, email mike.king@kingswell.co.uk or visit the company’s web site at http://www.kingswell.co.uk.

About Ultera Systems
Ultera Systems, Inc. is the leading manufacturer of RAID Tape Array controllers and subsystems designed for high-speed backup, archive and high-speed data acquisition applications. All industry standard tape drives, tape libraries and storage management software are compatible with the Ultera Arrays. Its tape array product lines are marketed under the trade names "Striper," "Imager," "LibraryMaster" and "Shadow Master," and sold through OEMs, VARs, and Systems Integrators worldwide. Ultera is based in Laguna Hills, Calif.

For further information, call (949) 367-8800, email inform@ultera.com or visit Ultera's web site at http://www.ultera.com.