Fujitsu Computer Products of America

Fujitsu and Bell Microproducts Enter Storage Distribution Agreement

Fastest Growing Channel Hard Disk Drive Supplier in the United States Partners with the Americas' Largest Storage Distributor

San Jose, CA, July 19, 2004 — Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. (FCPA), one of the world's leading suppliers of hard disk drives and computer peripherals, today announced a distribution relationship with Bell Microproducts (Nasdaq: BELM), a leading international value-added distributor offering  a wide range of high technology products, solutions and services. Bell Microproducts will begin shipping Fujitsu enterprise hard disk drives, mobile hard disk drives and magneto-optical (MO) drives to resellers in the United States and South America. Bell Microproducts is a Fortune 1000 company with sales exceeding $2.23B in 2003.

"The hard disk drive industry is going through a transition driven by the emergence of new technology and products. Fujitsu is excited to work with Bell Microproducts, a recognized leader who shares our commitment to the development of a new generation of enterprise and mobile storage applications," said Lorne Wilson, vice president, channel sales and marketing, Fujitsu Computer Products of America. "Working together, Fujitsu and Bell Microproducts ensure that resellers in the United States and South America receive cutting edge storage technology, top quality products, and an industry leading support infrastructure to help customers succeed."  

Fujitsu hard disk drives and MO drives offer original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), solution providers, value-added resellers (VARs) and system builders a broad range of performance, capacity and connectivity options to serve the commercial and industrial storage markets.  

"Bell Microproducts and Fujitsu are two of the storage industry's most respected names and we are excited to formally announce a distribution relationship," said Don Bell, CEO and President, Bell Microproducts. "Our value added solutions model and Fujitsu's technological leadership is a terrific combination that will deliver outstanding performance and support to our diverse customer base."

Fujitsu enterprise hard disk drives include the industry leading MAT and MAU series offering up to 300GB of storage capacity and SCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces. Fujitsu's MAT series enterprise hard disk drive is the industry's first 10K RPM drive to deliver 300GB of storage capacity in a 75Gb/s 4-platter design. The MAU series enterprise hard disk drive is the industry's first 15K RPM, 147GB hard disk drive. Fujitsu has substantially increased the maximum internal data transfer rate on both the MAU and MAT series to 130MB/s and 147MB/s respectively, reflecting a 25% improvement over previous generation drives.

Fujitsu's suite of mobile hard disk drives includes the industry's first 2.5" Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive and industry leading Parallel ATA hard disk drives. In January 2004, Fujitsu announced the MHT-BH, the first 2.5" SATA hard disk drive to deliver the power of the integrated Serial ATA SOC in a 2.5" form factor. The MHT-BH hard disk drive features Native Command Queuing (NCQ) that intelligently and simultaneously coordinates up to 32 instructions to be queued and reordered by the hard disk controller, contributing to a significant improvement in overall hard disk drive performance. Additionally, Bell Microproducts will offer Fujitsu's MHU2100AT model, a 2.5" 9.5mm mobile hard disk drive offering up to 100GB of capacity and nearly a 30% increase in areal density.

Bell Microproducts will also deliver Fujitsu's 3.5" magneto-optical technology, a suite of products ideally positioned for system builders, as well as mobile and office-based professionals demanding high-performance removable data storage for multimedia, file backup and archive, and graphics/CAD applications. Available with popular Hi-Speed USB or SCSI interfaces, Fujitsu DynaMO drives provide up to 2.3GB of durable, rewritable, removable storage capacity on 3.5" robust media.  

Bell Microproducts will also support the Fujitsu line with its value added services that include: drive formatting, software loading, firmware upgrading, functional and parametric testing, burn-in, hardware mounting systems, private labeling, destroking, signature string modification, and Bell MicroScreen+.

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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 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, back-up products, storage management software, and extensive support, integration and installation services. 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 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 9001:2000 facilities. Bell Microproducts markets and distributes more than 125 brand name product lines, as well as its own Rorke Data storage brands, to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), contract electronic manufacturing services (EMS) customers, value-added resellers (VARs) and system integrators in the Americas and Europe.
For more information, please see: http://www.bellmicro.com

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu is a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions for the global marketplace. Pace-setting technologies, highly reliable computing and communications platforms, and a worldwide corps of systems and services experts uniquely position Fujitsu to deliver comprehensive solutions that open up infinite possibilities for its customers' success.  Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.7 trillion yen (US$45 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004.  
For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com

About Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc.

Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. (FCPA) conducts engineering and marketing activities in San Jose, CA and sales operations throughout the United States. FCPA's current product and service offerings include hard disk drives, tape drives, magneto-optical drives, scanners and scanner maintenance. FCPA is located at 2904 Orchard Parkway, San Jose, CA, 95134. For more information about Fujitsu products and services, call us at 800-626-4686 or 408-432-6333.
For more information, please see: http://www.fcpa.fujitsu.com

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