EXABYTE TEAMS UP WITH ULTERA
Partnership Creates Industry’s First True Turnkey
DLTtape RAID Backup Solution

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif., October 26, 1999….Ultera Systems, the leading tape array controller and tape array system supplier, and Exabyte Corporation (Nasdaq: EXBT), a leading network backup systems company, today announced a partnering relationship to deliver breakthroughs in backup performance and reliability with a new tape RAID solution built around Exabyte’s 690D DLTtape™ library. This partnership offers unique backup to tape that is four times faster than a single drive backup, while also providing a higher level of fault tolerance.

The Exabyte-Ultera tape RAID solution combines Exabyte’s multi-terabyte scalable DLTtape 690D library with Ultera’s Striper™-3 Tape Array RAID controller to create a next-generation network backup solution that provides unmatched performance and data availability with data rates up to 144 GB/hour.

"This partnership brings value to our customers when it comes to their storage needs. This tape RAID solution offers the shortest backup time possible and assurance that the backup job will be successful," said Tim Studebaker, vice president of automation business at Exabyte. "With Ultera’s tape RAID, customers not only increase throughput, shortening the required backup time, but they also receive a higher level of fault tolerance. This means this solution can sustain either a failure of a single drive or media without losing the backup job."

The Exabyte 690D DLTtape library was designed to take advantage of the performance enhancements enabled by Ultera’s Tape Array RAID technology. The library array solution is the result of a collaboration between Exabyte and Ultera engineers that empowers 690D customers to scale up to supercharge their backup operations by upgrading to full tape RAID capability in a simple plug-and-play installation. An Ultera Striper or Imager™ array controller module can be installed directly into an internal compartment on the 690D that was specifically designed for the OEM and System Integrators who want to incorporate Ultera’s tape RAID technology directly within the library itself. The tight integration also enables a library operator to fully control the tape RAID controller via the convenient front panel LCD on the Exabyte library. The result is the first true turnkey DLTtape RAID product on the market.

Additionally, any installed 690D can be easily upgraded with Ultera’s plug-and-play RAID controller packages specifically designed for Resellers. The library top box or rack-mount package can be installed and operational in minutes, providing customers with 690D libraries the latest in tape performance technology without any library modifications, making this a true value-add solution.

Exabyte designed the media magazines on the 690D library for tape RAID standards. The removable magazines each hold five DLT™ cartridges; Ultera’s Striper array controller creates a set of up to five tapes using four data drives and a parity drive to store data. The five-cartridge magazine capacity makes it convenient to store a complete set of tape array tapes safely and makes them available for fast and easy restoration if needed.

"The Exabyte 690D array solution represents the highest degree of integration ever done to support a RAID tape library," said Fred Bedard, vice president of sales and marketing at Ultera. "Exabyte has embraced the advantages of tape arrays, and with the 690D architecture, the company has given its customers a powerful tape array-ready platform that works seamlessly with Ultera’s controllers. Exabyte’s leadership in adopting tape array technology is setting the standard for the industry."

The Exabyte 690D is a fully scalable, field-upgradeable data storage solution, configurable for 30, 60 or 90 data cartridges and two to six tape drives. The newest member of the Exabyte Arrowhead™ family, the 690D is designed to provide extremely reliable unattended storage and retrieval for large application and database servers. The 690D offers the highest capacity per cubic foot in its class, delivering up to 6.3 terabytes of data storage using DLT7000 drives or 7.2 terabytes when equipped with the new Quantum DLT8000 drives. The 690D maintains Exabyte’s high standards for library performance and reliability, fully supporting network backup/restore, remote storage management and automated archiving operations.

The inherent reliability of Exabyte’s library design is amplified with the addition of Ultera’s tape RAID technology. When equipped with an Ultera array controller, the Exabyte 690D is transformed into a high-performance, fault-tolerant backup solution. Ultera’s Striper-3 array controller installed in a four- or five-drive 690D library delivers full 40 MB/sec sustained data throughput, or up to 144 GB/hour. Data is striped across five independent parallel array channels, increasing data transfer rates as well as search speeds by as much as four times the speed of a single tape drive. The higher performance is augmented with vastly improved backup reliability and data availability. Unlike conventional backup operations where a failed drive or cartridge can cripple data backup or recovery operations, parity information stored on a parity drive is used to recover data if a tape containing data cannot be read. This configuration also makes the 690D array impervious to a drive or media failure, allowing read and write operations to continue with no performance degradation, virtually guaranteeing completion of backup operations.

When set for mirrored operation, an Ultera-equipped 690D library can create up to five separate backup tapes simultaneously, enabling the real-time creation of off-site backup tapes for disaster recovery. Alternatively, an administrator can use the front panel display to create multiple off-line backup copies within the library without any intervention from the host system.

The Ultera tape RAID solution for the 690D is currently shipping and is being made available to all Exabyte System Integrators, Resellers and Distributors worldwide through Ultera Systems.

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" and "LibraryMaster™" 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.

Exabyte Corporation
For general information about Exabyte and for sales, call (800) 774-7172. For support and customer service, call (800) EXABYTE or (800) 445-7736. Please call (+65) 271-6331 for Asia/Pacific and (+31) 30-2548800 for European inquiries. To have investor information faxed, call (201) 946-0091, or download information from the investor relations room on the company’s Web site. For investor-related questions, please call (30) 417-7511 or email investor@exabyte.com. Visit Exabyte on the World Wide Web at http://www.exabyte.com.