Cygnet Storage Solutions and Chess DAX Form Partnership.

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 1999--

Cygnet Storage Solutions and Chess DAX to Provide Customers in

Pre-Press and Other Verticals With Seamless, Cost-effective CD

Archiving Systems

Cygnet Storage Solutions and Chess DAX announced today an agreement to jointly offer professional markets worldwide, such as pre-press, two of their flagship storage and archival products -- id 100(TM) and smartDAX(TM).

Under the agreement, Cygnet will market smartDAX(TM) and other DAX technology in the U.S. through VARs and integrators into the pre-press market for digital asset management applications while Chess will sell the id 100(TM) into the pre-press market in Europe. With the enhanced product line, both Cygnet and Chess will be able to supply effective scalable digital archiving solutions to any customer in the pre-press market, ranging from small design studios to Fortune 500 companies.

Cygnet's id 100 is a highly reliable, flexible and expandable 100 CD/DVD desktop jukebox. It is available in diverse configurations and is supported by powerful and popular software packages on numerous platforms.

Its compelling performance, proven CD/DVD technology scalability, easily accessible and removable bar-coded magazines have made the id 100(TM) a solution of choice for storage, archival and duplication for many types of applications including digital asset management, for the present and the future. List prices start as low as $5,295.

SmartDAX(TM) from Chess DAX is an open, completely transparent, end-to-end infinite capacity Digital Archive eXtendable. It is a unique, plug-and-play system, expandable from 455 Gbytes on 700 CDs per unit to as many smartDAX(TM) archives as needed.

The smartDAX(TM) system has proven compliance with a great variety of digital asset management software packages enabling its customers short and risk-free implementation periods. DVD-ready, smartDAX(TM) is network-based and integrates easily into combined UNIX, Windows NT and MAC environments.

"As part of our continuing strategy to ally with industry-leading players, Cygnet is pleased to partner with Chess," said Lennart Hjord, president, chief executive officer and director at Cygnet.

"Our two companies are leveraging their strengths to market award winning products such as id 100 and smartDAX to the fast growing pre-press market. More customers worldwide will be able to satisfy their increasing demands for CD production and data distribution, CD library management, records archival, and document management with competitive solutions from Cygnet and Chess."

"Our partnership with Cygnet benefits important industry sectors that are seeking to shift from film to digital images to grow their business advantage through cutting-edge technologies and topnotch product integration," commented Kees Machielsen, managing director of Chess DAX B.V.

"SmartDAX and id 100 redefine companies' workflows, better archive and store images for access in the near and more distant future. Using industry standard compliant media and drives, already integrated with next generation technologies like DVD 100 or DVD-ready smartDAX, our products give VARs and integrators a strong selling point on both product features and cost."

Cygnet Storage Solutions, Inc. is proud to be the choice provider of an increasingly wide array of CD/DVD storage and automated recording solutions, both hardware -- such as CD/DVD-RAM jukeboxes, CD autoloading duplicators, towers, network attached storage devices and network servers -- and supporting storage management software for a number of vertical markets including banking, government, healthcare and entertainment.

In the field of optical storage, Cygnet's Series 1800 12-in. library has been installed by more imaging and enterprise-class storage end-users than any other large-format optical library. Headquartered in Milpitas, Cygnet markets its products worldwide through partnerships with leading storage, imaging and network solutions providers in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Chess DAX BV, an operating entity of the Chess Holding BV group, is a fast growing, innovative European company offering large end-to-end digital archiving solutions. From its headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, Chess DAX markets its products into the graphics industry, publishing, engineering, construction, healthcare, entertainment, government, legal and banking for applications such as multimedia data bases, data processing, document imaging, medical imaging and the Internet. Its core product, smartDAX, is the world's largest digital archival system already installed in Europe's largest on-line digital archive and used via Internet throughout the world. In addition to its archiving products, Chess DAX also develops and markets software services to support its worldwide sales channels.

Note to Editors: Infinidisc, InfiniDVD, InfiniWriter, id 100, id 100 Duplicator, Panorama(+), DVD 100, Cygnet Towers and Servers and Cygnet Series 1800 are trademarks of Cygnet Storage Solutions, Inc. SmartDAX is a registered trademark of Chess DAX. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.