Eden Prairie, MN, September 11, 2000 - Rorke Data, a subsidiary of San Jose-based Bell Microproducts, Inc. (NASDAQ: BELM), announced today that the company's StudioNet-FC, a high bandwidth Fibre Channel SAN solution now offers expanded performance for either very high-bandwidth work group environments, or enterprise-scale configurations.
At the heart of the StudioNet-FC's new scalability and performance is the substantial upgrades inherent to Rorke Data's just released Galaxy 55 Fibre Channel RAID solution. The Galaxy 55's new chipset and unique firmware allows users to have increased speed and scalability by incorporating dual six-channel Fibre-to-Fibre RAID controllers (two host channels/four disk channels), HSSDC copper connections, and two built-in 2-port hubs.
"The system can sustain 140-160MB/s in a dual-redundant Enterprise mode, which is ideal for most large-scale, data-intensive environments" said Joe Rorke, Rorke Data's VP of Marketing "Our experience with digital video editing and streaming applications lead us to develop the optional Xstream mode. XStream delivers aggregate sustained speeds between 280MB/s-320MB/s, with scalability"
This is powerful upgrade offers significant value to video and broadcast streaming applications. The upgraded StudioNet-FC allows multiple workstations to share a unified data in a SAN environment, permitting multiple systems to concurrently share the same video/broadcast media assets and projects over a high-speed Fibre Channel network.
"Successfully developing a stable Fibre Channel storage solution for video applications takes years of experience and knowledge," said Bob Herzan, vice president of world wide sales, Audio/Video Division, Rorke Data. "Rorke Data's 15 years in the audio/video industry and direct relationship with leading manufacturers' core development teams is a base line for our success. The fact that we can deploy these systems worldwide is a testament to the close working relationships with our strategic partners in the broadcast and video industries"
With a SAN, digital video can be simultaneously recorded and played back by multiple stations, with no need for local storage. Instead of having to make a copy of a video file to get it from one side of a facility to another, a SAN allows multiple users on opposite sides of the facility to use the same video file, at the same time, without the need to make additional copies.
About Rorke Data
Rorke Data, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bell Microproducts, Inc., is a full digital storage solutions provider with expertise in Fibre Channel RAID, SAN, DVD, tape and optical libraries, Unix, NT and Mac environments, high bandwidth networks, digital asset and document management, and engineering and maintenance services. Founded in 1985, Rorke Data Europe, located in Emmen, The Netherlands, is composed of six divisions: Medical Archive Applications, Audio/Video, Prepress, Imaging, Document Management, Engineering and Installation Services. More information about Rorke Data can be found at www.rorke.com.
About Bell Microproducts
Bell Microproducts is an international value added provider of a wide range of high technology products, solutions, and services to the industrial and commercial marketplace. The company's offering includes semiconductors, computer platforms, peripherals, and storage products of various types including desktop, high-end computer and storage subsystems, fibre channel connectivity products, RAID, NAS and SAN storage systems and back-up products. Bell Microproducts is an industry-recognized specialist in storage products and is one of the world's largest storage-centric value-added distributors.
The company's products are available at any level of integration from components, to subsystem assemblies, to fully integrated, tested and certified system solutions. The company adds value with a broad range of services including testing, software loading, kitting, mass storage system integration, and computer system integration. Trained and certified technical personnel complete each of these processes at Bell Microproducts' ISO 9002 facilities. Bell Microproducts markets and distributes more than 100 brand name product lines, as well as its own BellStor storage and TrademarkÒ computer brands, to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), contract electronic manufacturing services (EMS) customers, value-added resellers (VARs) and system integrators in the Americas and Europe. More information can be found in SEC filings, or by visiting the Bell Microproducts Web site at www.bellmicro.com.
Safe Harbor Statement. This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's current views of future events and financial performance, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or facts to differ materially from such statements for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to: the ability to successfully integrate the operations of recent acquisitions, industry conditions, changes in product supply, pricing, and customer demand, competition, other vagaries in the computer and electronic components markets, changes in relationships with key suppliers, foreign currency fluctuations and the other risks described from time to time in the Company's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission (including the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K). Investors should take such risks into account when making investment decisions. Shareholders and other readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. The company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements.
StudioNet-FC, and the StudioNet-FC logo are trademarks of Rorke Data, Inc.
