Rorke Storage Certified Across Broad Range of
Pinnacle Systems' Editing Solutions

MaxArray™ Qualified for use with Pinnacle's CinéWave, TARGA 3000 and Liquid Products

Las Vegas, Nev., NAB 2002, South Hall Booth #L15112, April 7 - 11, 2002 - Rorke Data, Inc., a subsidiary of San Jose-based Bell Microproducts, Inc. (NASDAQ: BELM), has announced that Pinnacle Systems (San Jose, CA), a leading provider of content creation and distribution solutions, has certified Rorke's MaxArray storage systems for use with Pinnacle's CinéWave (MaxArray 8-bay tower enclosure only), TARGA 3000 and Liquid editing systems. (Editor: please visit NAB 2002 LVCC Booth #L10621 to see the complete line of Pinnacle products.)

At NAB 2002, some of Pinnacle's demonstrations will include Rorke's most recent MaxArray product, the MaxArray 320, the industry's first Ultra 320-compliant disk array, offered in either a 2U 8-bay or 3U 14-Bay desktop or rackmount configuration.

The MaxArray series of desktop and rackmount video disk array solutions were specifically designed for data-intensive environments such as digital video editing, effects creation, and streaming media production for the Internet.

"Rorke Data has enjoyed a long relationship with Pinnacle," said Bob Herzan, Rorke's VP of World Wide Sales. "The continued collaboration between Pinnacle's technical staff and Rorke's Bell Microproducts Solutions Center (BMSC) Interoperability Lab allows us to fine tune and develop high performing arrays for Pinnacle's storage-intensive applications."

"Rorke has consistently done a great job, creating products that work well with Pinnacle Systems' content creation solutions," said Laurin Herr, VP of Content Creation Products, Professional/ Broadcast Products Division at Pinnacle Systems. "They have stayed at the forefront by repeatedly delivering innovative storage solutions that keep pace with the changing technology supplied by Pinnacle. Our companies will continue to work together to offer cost-effective and reliable solutions for our customers."

The MaxArray series is approved by over 50 digital video, effects, and streaming application manufacturers. The MaxArray is scalable to over 1TB, and ships in either 4, 8, or 14 drive configurations.

About Pinnacle Systems, Inc.
Pinnacle Systems provides cutting-edge digital video creation, storage, streaming and viewing solutions for broadcasters, video professionals and consumers. Pinnacle Systems solutions help enable the creation, management and distribution of video via cable, satellite, video-on-demand (VOD), digital video disks (DVDs) and the Internet, along with consumer editing products for home movie making and DVD creation. The company has won eight Emmy Awards for its technical innovations for broadcast products and carries its commitment throughout all of its product lines. Pinnacle Systems may be reached at (650) 526-1600 or at www.pinnaclesys.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 150 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.