Rorke Selects Seagate's LTO Technology for High-Speed Tape Library Backup New Viper® 2000 Tape Autoloader will be Unveiled at RSNA 2001

Chicago, IL, RSNA 2001, Booth #1122, November 28, 2001 - Rorke Data, Inc., a subsidiary of San Jose-based Bell Microproducts, Inc. (NASDAQ:BELM), and a leader in Fibre-Channel SAN and data storage solutions for the healthcare industry, announced today that it has selected Seagate's high-speed Viper 2000 autoloader for incorporation into medical imaging applications featuring Rorke's RTL Series of rack-mountable tape libraries.

"All industries are looking at reliable, high-speed data backup for file protection and disaster recovery as a key strategy in their data storage management plan," said Joe Rorke, VP/Marketing, Rorke Data, " and Seagate's Linear Tape-Open (LTO) technology gives the medical imaging industry an especially strong foundation upon which to build such a strategy. We recognize that backup is especially critical in medical applications, since there may be only brief opportunities to collect and then backup the data. With the issue of HIPAA compliance also a current concern, we believe we're offering the most reliable technology to assure recovery and business continuance."

The Viper 2000 autoloader is a high-speed, hands-free backup solution that provides up to 2 Tbytes of compressed backup from ten cartridge slots. Powered by Seagate's Ultrium-format Viper 200 tape drive, Viper 2000 transfer rates reach up to 1.92 Gbytes per minute. The Ultrium format is based on Linear Tape-Open technology, an open-format tape specification developed by Seagate, Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp. The Viper family is Seagate's flagship tape product platform that is based on the Ultrium format.

"Seagate is pleased to have Rorke as a partner in the medical imaging market," said Brad Renfree, director, LTO Product Line Management at Seagate Removable Storage Solutions. "As longstanding partners with Rorke Data in other markets requiring sophisticated data storage, it's easy for Seagate to acknowledge their expertise in meeting the workflow requirements of industries whose needs are very unique and specific."

Rorke's Medical Imaging Page

About LTO
Seagate, along with fellow technology providers Hewlett-Packard and IBM, created Linear Tape-Open, or LTO, technology, as a new powerful, scaleable, open tape format to meet the growing demands of data protection in midrange to enterprise-class server environments. Viper® is the Seagate RSS product family based on LTO technology's Ultrium format. It includes the award-winning Viper® 200 tape drive, engineered as a best-in-class drive with the highest announced data transfer rate of up to 115.2 Gbytes per hour (compressed) and a compressed per-cartridge capacity of up to 200 Gbytes; Ultrium-format data cartridges; and Viper® 2000 autoloader.

About Seagate Removable Storage Solutions
A Seagate company, Seagate Removable Storage Solutions (RSS) is a market leader in tape backup products and data protection solutions with more than 10 million drives installed. Seagate RSS produces an extensive range of products designed to meet the backup, restore and personal external storage needs of virtually every platform from notebooks and PCs to enterprise servers. Seagate Removable Storage Solutions can be found around the globe and at www.seagate.com.

About Rorke Data
Rorke Data 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, together with its European subsidiary, 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. Rorke Data is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bell Microproducts, Inc. (Nasdaq: BELM).

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 125 brand name product lines, as well as its own BellStor storage and TradeMark 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 website 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.

For more information, contact: Rorke Data, Inc., 7626 Golden Triangle Drive, Eden Prairie, MN 55344; 800/328-8147 or 952/829-0300; fax: 952/829-0988; website: www.rorke.com.

Seagate, Seagate Technology and the Seagate logo are registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC. Viper is either a registered trademark or trademark of Seagate Removable Storage Solutions LLC. Other product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their owners. Linear Tape-Open, LTO, Ultrium, and the Ultrium logo are U.S. trademarks of HP, IBM and Seagate. Seagate reserves the right to change, without notice, product offerings or specifications.