Dell Dedicates New Austin Manufacturing Center.

ROUND ROCK, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 1998--

Facility for Servers, Storage Products and Workstations Is One of Five

Manufacturing Expansion Projects Announced This Year

Dell Computer Corporation (Nasdaq:DELL) unveiled the first manufacturing center on its new 570-acre campus in northeast Austin and celebrated the most ambitious expansion initiative in the company's history.

The new facility, dedicated to manufacturing servers, storage products and workstations, is one of five new manufacturing facilities announced or completed by Dell around the world this year.

In 1998, Dell began or announced construction of manufacturing facilities in new and existing markets on sites in Limerick, Ireland; Xiamen, China; Alvorada, Brazil; and Austin. These projects will add more than one million square feet of new manufacturing space and more than 4,500 jobs.

Demand Drives Expansion

The new facilities will fulfill growing global customer demand. Dell's growth of two to four times the industry rate is driving market share gains and elevating the company in U.S. and worldwide industry rankings. Dell currently is ranked No. 2 in the U.S. and No. 3 in worldwide PC rankings according to leading analysts.

In Ireland, where Dell is ranked No. 1 among PC manufacturers and has served the European market since 1990, Dell is adding two manufacturing facilities and 3,700 jobs to meet ongoing demand for Dell products. With this addition, Dell becomes the largest private employer in Ireland.

In China -- one of the largest and most under-penetrated PC markets in the world -- Dell has built a customer center to manufacture customized systems for Chinese companies and government organizations. The company is introducing its direct business approach to the Chinese market, including toll-free phone sales and Internet sales.

In Brazil, Dell has announced plans to construct a manufacturing and customer support center that will bring the advantages of customized manufacturing and direct relationships to customers in Latin America's largest and fastest growing computer markets.

In Austin, Dell's new campus will provide for the company's future manufacturing expansion needs for the North American market. The first facility on the campus will produce the company's enterprise product lines including Dell PowerEdge(R) servers and Dell Precision(tm) workstations -- two of the company's fastest growing product lines. Server sales have grown consistently since 1996 when Dell introduced a new server line that was a major factor in resetting price/performance standards for industry-standard servers. Over the last two years, customer demand for Dell PowerEdge servers has won the company new customers and new market share -- propelling it from No. 6 in U.S. rankings to No. 2.

"This has been a phenomenal year for Dell's customers and for our direct model," said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO. "As a direct company, we balance the needs to tightly manage assets and our costs with the need to be responsive to customer demand. Given this conservative approach, Dell's expansion activities this year suggest unwavering demand for our products and services and a growing interest in the many benefits of our direct model worldwide.

"Not only are we expanding our geographic reach with these facilities, but we are refining our manufacturing processes with each new project -- taking the advantages of customized manufacturing to the next level," he said.

New Manufacturing Innovations

The new server/workstation facility builds on past success and innovations from Dell manufacturing facilities around the world and takes velocity, quality and factory-based customization -- Dell hallmarks -- to new levels. Innovations include an "Integration Core" where Dell configures individual servers, storage systems, workstations and racks into integrated solutions for the unique network environment of each customer.

By providing this service, which customers describe as "a data center in a box," Dell eliminates tedious and time-consuming processes for customers who otherwise would spend one to two days configuring new network products to their unique client-server environment.

The new facility also features two labs; one dedicated to designing, testing and implementing special, factory-based customer services; the other dedicated to quality testing.

To further improve productivity, the new facility introduces an updated approach to cell-based manufacturing whereby a single employee builds and tests a server for faster throughput, more flexibility and immediate identification of quality problems. Additionally, automation improvements cut testing time as much as 80 percent by running multiple system performance tests simultaneously.

The new server/workstation facility currently employs 400-500 and will increase production and employment to 1,200 in the future in response to customer demand. Workstation manufacturing will be added to the new facility in the coming months so that a single facility builds advanced systems for large Dell customers.

Ranked No. 125 among the Fortune 500(R) companies and No. 363 in the Fortune Global 500, Dell Computer Corporation is the world's leading direct computer systems company, based on revenues of $16.8 billion for the past four quarters. Dell designs, manufactures and customizes products and services to customer requirements, and offers an extensive selection of software and peripherals. Information on Dell and its products can be obtained in the U.S. through its toll-free number 800/388-8542 or by accessing the Dell World Wide Web site at www.dell.com.

Dell and PowerEdge are registered trademarks; Dell Precision is a registered trademark; and DellWare is a registered service mark of Dell Computer Corporation. Fortune 500 is a registered trademark of Time Inc. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.