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Bell Microproducts Announces 'The Future of Network Storage'

Posted on: Thursday, 5 January 2006, 12:00 CST

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Bell Microproducts, Inc. , a leading, worldwide distributor of data storage products, announced today the upcoming launch of a new line of network storage devices that incorporate Zetera's Storage over Internetworking Protocol (SoIP) technology. The new product line, which moves Bell Microproducts solidly into the business network storage space, will include desktop and rackmount devices for business users, and is slated for release under Bell Microproducts' Hammer Storage brand in the first quarter of 2006.

Zetera technology enables Hammer network storage devices for business to perform better, scale more fluidly and provides superior virtualization to what is available from today's more costly NAS and SAN devices. "Bell's move into business storage is the natural evolution of our great success in consumer storage under the Hammer brand," said Jerry Kagele, Executive Vice President, Computer Products. "Simply put, our new Hammer Network Storage line represents the future of network storage. Our customers want storage that is faster, more scalable, easier to manage and less expensive. Thanks to our Zetera alliance, we can now deliver exactly what the market demands."

"Zetera's new storage architecture is one of those rare technology breakthroughs that is superior in every dimension to its predecessors," said Zetera CEO, Chuck Cortright. "We are proud to bring our technology to the business market with the world leader in storage product distribution."

Hammer business storage will offer robust storage management software for small and large IT operations that enable the unique, advanced features delivered by Zetera technology. The new product line will include desktop and rackmount solutions for business users with capacities reaching two terabytes. The desktop will deliver a superior price/performance advantage over competing desktop 4-bay NAS products. 1U rackmount products will compete with entry-level SAN solutions by providing better performance, scalability and reliability at a very attractive price point. The Hammer line will include solutions offering greater than 24TB capacity later in this year.

The worldwide market for business storage is expected to continue to grow at double digit rates over the next several years, led by NAS and fabric-attached SAN solutions. At the same time, less expensive SATA-based solutions are expected to capture a growing share of the enterprise IT market, providing additional tiers of storage and often supplanting costlier SCSI and Fibre Channel disk drives. The Hammer product line is uniquely positioned to take advantage of these trends.

Zetera's SoIP-based architecture provides the ease of use and file/volume sharing of NAS technology, providing far superior performance and scalability at substantially lower price points. Users get the power and scalability of SAN architectures, with superior usability and far lower cost.

Zetera's architecture uses distributed controllers to eliminate the high cost and performance limitations of fixed RAID controllers. By using IP as the storage fabric, costly specialty switches and host bus adapters are replaced with commodity Ethernet switches. Zetera-based storage is inherently virtualized, enabling storage solutions to scale smoothly across enclosures, up to a maximum volume size of 128 petabytes. Zetera SoIP devices provide the highest possible flexibility for storage provisioning, consolidation, and efficient management.

About Bell Microproducts, Inc.

Bell Microproducts is an international, value-added provider of a wide range of high-technology products, solutions, and services to the industrial and commercial markets. 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 and fully-integrated, tested and certified system solutions. The Company adds value with a broad range of services including system design, integration, installation, maintenance, and other consulting services. Trained and certified technical personnel provide these services at Bell Microproducts' ISO 9001:2000 facilities. Bell Microproducts markets and distributes more than 140 brand name product lines, as well as its own Rorke Data, Hammer storage brands and Markvision memory modules, to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), contract electronic manufacturing services (CEMS) customers, value-added resellers (VARs) and system integrators in the Americas and Europe. More information can be found in the Company's SEC filings, or by visiting the Bell Microproducts web site at http://www.bellmicro.com/

About Zetera Corporation:

Founded in 2002, Zetera Corporation is a developer of patent-pending technology that enables networked storage to be realized at unprecedented price-performance levels. The technology was invented by the creators of the IDE and ATAPI disk drive standards, which have shipped in the billions of disk drives. Leveraging the latest IP advances, Zetera has created a new class of network storage technology that is superior in performance, cost, scalability and compatibility to all other types of network storage. Based in Irvine, Ca., Zetera licenses its technology to leading storage, computer, peripheral and device manufacturers worldwide, including Bell Microproducts, Inc., Netgear and StorCase. For more information, visit the company's web site at http://www.zetera.com/.

Safe Harbor Statement for Bell Microproducts:

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.

Bell Microproducts, Inc.

CONTACT: Bryan Nash, Vice President and General Manager, Hammer Storage,+1-408-451-9400, or bnash@bellmicro.com, or Merle McIntosh, MarketingCommunications, +1-408-436-4494, or mmcintosh@bellmicro.com, both of BellMicroproducts, Inc.; or Jennifer Tolkachev of Lages & Associates,+1-949-453 8080, or Jennifer@lages.com, for Zetera

Web site: http://www.zetera.com/

Web site: http://www.bellmicro.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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