Exabyte Announces Breakthrough LTO-3 Tape Autoloader

Exabyte Corporation (OTCBB: EXBT - News), a leading innovator in tape backup, restore and archival systems, today announced the availability of its Magnum 1x7 Autoloader with third-generation LTO® Ultrium® tape drive technology (LTO-3). Exabyte is among the first manufacturers to ship IBM's third-generation LTO Ultrium drives in its tape automation line. The Magnum 1x7, part of Exabyte's SMB-Class of Automation, is built with ExaBotics(TM), Exabyte's patented and award-winning robotics systems recognized worldwide for reliability, and includes a robust feature set and plug-and-play simplicity. The product's affordable pricing will allow new segments of the storage market to consider LTO-3 automation for the first time.

The Magnum 1x7 LTO Tape Autoloader offers one LTO-3 drive and seven cartridge slots. With 3rd generation LTO technology and Exabyte's patented robotics, the Magnum 1x7 Autoloader achieves data transfer speeds of up to 576 GB/hr and capacity of up to 5.6 TB in a compact 2u form factor that conserves valuable data center rack space. An ideal first step into LTO-3 automation, the Magnum 1x7 provides a robust set of standard features, including a barcode reader, and an Ethernet port for remote management -- perfect for distributed office environments. Plus, unlike competitive products, the Magnum 1x7 was designed with the convenience of a field-upgradeable drive.

As the industry's first and only LTO-3 autoloader with an estimated street price below $7,000, the Magnum 1x7 provides low-cost automated LTO-3 performance and an impressive set of standard features in a small 2u footprint with no hidden add-on costs -- even the rack-mount kit and cables are included. With its breakthrough price -- comparable to many standalone LTO-3 drives -- the Magnum 1x7 makes the speed and capacity of LTO automation affordable for thousands of companies that want to graduate up to LTO-3 automation.

"Exabyte has always been the most innovative brand in LTO automation, and our LTO-3 products continue that tradition," said Tom Ward, president and CEO of Exabyte. "The Magnum 1x7, part of our SMB-Class Automation Line, sets new standards for price-performance ratios in the LTO-3 category. With very affordable pricing, unmatched reliability, and robust features, the Magnum 1x7 is a smart choice for network administrators seeking LTO-3 automation."

The LTO-3 Ultrium tape drives integrated by Exabyte double the capacity and speed of the popular LTO-2 drive, bringing capacity to 400GB (800GB compressed) and transfer speed to 80MB per second (160MB/sec compressed), thus shortening the time needed for backup and restore processes -- a key benefit for companies with increasing storage requirements and shrinking backup windows. LTO-3 drives outperform most tape drives in the market today, allowing users to replace multiple drives with a single LTO-3 autoloader, which reduces points of failure in network architecture and lowers the total cost of ownership for tape drive hardware and media.

Next-generation LTO-3 improvements include the addition of a Graceful Dynamic Braking feature, which significantly reduces media stress and the likelihood of media damage in the event of a sudden loss of power to the drive. Additional advantages of LTO-3 tape drives include energy-efficient electronics that utilize less power than LTO-2 while operating in the write and idle modes, a doubled buffer size, Digital Speed Matching (DSM) that combine to optimize tape feed and data transfer performance, and compatibility with LTO-1 and LTO-2 media to maximize legacy system investments.

Exabyte LTO tape libraries are elegantly designed to offer the lowest total cost of ownership in the category and maximum return on investment. Existing Magnum 1x7 users with legacy LTO drives can easily swap out their LTO-1 or -2 drives and install new LTO-3 drives in the field, which extends users' hardware investment and minimizes upgrade costs while immediately reaching new plateaus of capacity and speed with LTO-3 technology. This innovative "upgrade-in-the-field" capability is one of the many benefits of Exabyte's renowned engineering excellence. In addition, Exabyte's world-class ExaBotics -- which are widely recognized as the most intelligently designed automation robotics in the world -- ensure the industry-leading reliability of Exabyte LTO tape libraries, further reducing the overall cost of tape automation.

The Magnum 1x7 Autoloader with LTO-3 is available immediately through Exabyte's worldwide distribution and reseller networks. The Magnum 1x7 is the LTO centerpiece of Exabyte's SMB-Class Automation Line, joining the VXA-2 PacketLoader 1x10. With Exabyte's affordable SMB-Class Autoloaders, SMBs and departmental users can for the first time enjoy the benefits of easy-to-use, feature-rich automated backup and restore products with the world-class reliability of ExaBotics at a price they can afford. For more information on Exabyte products or to find a reseller in your area, visit www.exabyte.com.

About ExaBotics(TM)

ExaBotics(TM) is Exabyte's award-winning, patented robotics, built on its 20-year legacy of innovative "firsts" in the industry and its superior engineering, quality and reliability. ExaBotics is based on a single driving principle espoused by Albert Einstein: "As simple as possible, but not simpler." To this end, Exabyte engineers specify conservative electronics and ultra-reliable mechanical components that undergo intensive testing to ensure data security, accessibility and retrievability. Automation systems are designed to share electronics and processor architecture with drives, adding to reliability and economies of scale. Similarly, Exabyte's self-calibrating, self-correcting firmware mirrors the simple, clean mechanical engineering. Automation products share a common firmware between drive generations and technologies, assuring the ability to use multiple interfaces with the same basic firmware set. With this approach, products perform well early in the design cycle and change little during qualification, resulting in very mature products at launch.

Supported and certified by all major backup applications and compatible with all major operating systems, products engineered with ExaBotics provide complete plug-and-play capability, regardless of the interface. With one of the world's most prestigious tape automation patent portfolios and its heritage of industry innovation, Exabyte counts its competitors among its customers for ExaBotics because of the company's unmatched reputation for superior engineering, quality and reliability in tape automation. ExaBotics equates to engineering elegance -- simplicity of design that results in tape automation products that become an industry standard and deliver the industry's lowest cost of ownership.

About Exabyte Corporation

Exabyte Corporation (OTCBB: EXBT - News), now in its 20th year, is a recognized pioneer and leading innovator in tape storage. Its heritage comprises an impressive list of industry "firsts," including the first manufacturer of tape drives to break the 1, 2, and 5 GB capacity barriers; the first to introduce 8mm, native Fibre Channel, and FireWire tape drives and libraries; and the first and only manufacturer to offer VXA Packet Technology, which enables its VXA Packet drives, autoloaders and tapes to read and write data in packets like the Internet, allowing far superior restore integrity, exceptional transfer speeds and scalable tape capacities. With award-winning VXA Packet Technology, patented ExaBotics(TM) and its innovative engineering approach, Exabyte delivers new VXA(TM) and LTO(TM) (Ultrium(TM)) products that consistently raise the bar for industry standards in engineering, quality and data reliability. The company's product suite is ideally suited for SMB and departmental servers, workstations, LANs, and SANs, providing dramatically higher capacity, speed and reliability at competitive prices. Exabyte has a worldwide network of OEMs, distributors and resellers that share the company's commitment to innovation and customer service, including IBM, HP, Fujitsu Siemens, Apple, Imation, Bull, Toshiba, Logitec, Kontron, Tech Data, Ingram Micro, CDW, Condre, and Arrow Electronics. For additional information, call 1-800-EXABYTE or visit www.exabyte.com.

Data capacities and transfer rates assume a compression ratio of two-to-one. Actual compression will vary depending on the nature of the data and the drive and media quality.

Exabyte, VXA and VXA-2 are registered trademarks, and M2, MammothTape, PacketLoader and ExaBotics are trademarks of Exabyte Corp. All other products or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Exabyte Corporation
Media Contact:
Trippe-Marino, Inc.
Bill Marino, 303-988-5133
bmarino@trippemarino.com
or
Investor Contact:
MKR Group, LLC
Charles Messman, 818-556-3700
or
Todd Kehrli, 818-556-3700
ir@mkr-group.com



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Exabyte Corporation