American Megatrends Inc. Ships 1U, Eight Drive NAS and JBOD Solution.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 18, 2001

The StorTrends 1U, eight Ultra160 SCSI drive solution offers a revolutionary patent-pending hot swap mechanism; no screws are needed

to replace or install hard drives

Editorial Summary

--   The StorTrends 1108 solutions are available in configurations
     1108-J (JBOD), 1108-N (with NAS controller) and 1108-P (with NAS
     controller and AMI's NAS software)

--   The StorTrends 1108 series includes Ultra160 (Ultra320 ready)
     backplanes, AMI's Indium NAS controller with software RAID and
     AMI's custom-designed StorTrends NAS software version 1.0

American Megatrends Inc. (AMI), the leader in storage and computing innovations worldwide, today announced it is shipping the first validation units of its StorTrends 1108 Network Attached Storage (NAS) and JBOD (just a bunch of disks) line.

The units are available in versions 1108-J (JBOD), 1108-N (with AMI's NAS controller) and 1108-P (with NAS controller and AMI's NAS software). Full availability of the StorTrends 1108 in J, N and P versions will be August 1, 2001. MSRP ranges from $4,069 to $6,029, depending on whether the unit is a JBOD or has the optional Indium and StorTrends NAS software.

"AMI has stepped forward with bold new mid-range products for the crucial NAS marketplace. Designed for leading server integrators, these industry-first 1U, eight Ultra160 SCSI hot swap drive bay NAS solutions provide an incredible competitive advantage with their unique form factor and incredible speed," said Michael Patellis, AMI national sales manager.

StorTrends 1108-J - the basic chassis (JBOD)

The StorTrends 1108-J is a 1U eight drive dual channel Ultra160 SCSI NAS high-performance and highly scalable solution. The unit has many redundancy features, including three hot swappable dual unit fans and two hot swappable load sharing power supplies. One major advantage of the StorTrends 1108 line over any other NAS or JBOD device in the industry is its eZswap hard drive replacement mechanism.

"The revolutionary, patent-pending eZswap mechanism is the best feature of the StorTrends 1108 series," said Rodney Damen, senior program manager for storage and server subsystems. "Its ease of use will drastically improve the way we install and remove hard drives; it will meet all expectations of users seeking a complete, user-friendly solution. New drives are installed by simply inserting them straight out of the box--without screws, rails or carrier assemblies--and then latched in place with no mounting accessories or assembly. To replace a drive, the old drive is unlocked, removed and a new drive installed and locked in place in a matter of seconds."

The 1108 chassis features AMI backplanes (series 904 and 905) with four Ultra160 (Ultra320 ready) slots, single channel, horizontal (in-line) mounted drives for 1U rack chassis implementation and support for Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) v0.9 and v1.0. IPMI gives IT managers access to platform management information and control features, allowing more accurate predictions of hardware failures, diagnoses of hardware problems and the initiation of recovery actions.

The StorTrends 1108 is also available in versions 1108-N and 1108-P. Both include the same features that the 1108-J offers, but can be further enhanced with optional features, such as AMI's Indium and StorTrends NAS software, version 1.0.

StorTrends 1108-N - Indium NAS controller

The 1108-N solution includes AMI's Indium NAS controller, which combines AMI's expertise in board, firmware and operating system environments. The Indium's appliance architecture provides a scalable, high-performance platform that addresses many applications, including NAS, web servers and other embedded environments.

StorTrends 1108-P - Indium and AMI StorTrends NAS software version 1.0 with software RAID

The 1108-P features the Indium and AMI's custom-designed NAS software, with Network File Protocols (CIFS, NFS), Network Transport Protocols (TCP/IP) and Hardware Health Monitoring. All AMI software resides on a network upgradable flash memory device, which leaves all hard drives 100 percent available for user data.

"AMI is the only company in the industry that provides a complete hardware and software NAS solution designed by a single source," Damen added. "This includes AMI's BIOS, backplanes, motherboard, chassis and software that allows it to carefully address RAS (reliability, availability and serviceablility), performance and scalability."

About AMI

Founded in 1985, American Megatrends Inc. (AMI) has dedicated its resources to providing OEMs, resellers and systems integrators with leading edge computer technologies. This privately held company, best known for its BIOS, also supplies state-of-the-art hardware, software, utilities, RAID and NAS to 55% of today's high-tech manufacturers. Headquartered in Atlanta, AMI has locations in the U.S. and throughout the world including London, Chennai, Munich, Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo to better serve its customers. AMI is a member of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). For more information on AMI, its products or services, call 1-800-U-BUY-AMI or visit www.ami.com.