Qualstar Debuts New RLS-Series Rack Mount Library Family at COMDEX; Compatible With All of Today's Most Popular Backup Tape Formats; Capacity Exceeds Nine Terabytes in 5U.

Business Editors

COMDEX Fall 2001

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 2001

Qualstar Corporation (NASDAQ:QBAK) today announced the delivery of the first models of its new RLS-Series rack mount library family.

The RLS-Series is the only tape library product line that supports all three of today's most popular cartridge tape formats, AIT, LTO and SDLT, giving companies an unprecedented range of data backup and restore options in one easy-to-configure package.

Qualstar debuted the RLS-Series at its booth (L1579) at Fall COMDEX, the international computer exposition being held this week in Las Vegas.

"Mid-sized companies have an immediate need for tape libraries that not only meet their requirements today, but will grow with them tomorrow," said Bob Abraham, president of Freeman Reports, a leading data storage market research firm. "Rack mount libraries offer the advantage of delivering powerful performance and unparalleled flexibility."

The RLS-Series family contains four models that offer capacities exceeding nine terabytes in 5U of rack space, depending on the tape drive technology selected. Individual models can house up to four tape drives, leveraging the advanced technology of AIT, LTO or SuperDLT formats, and yielding data transfer rates approaching 450 gigabytes per hour.

All models feature hot-plugable tape drives in an advanced mounting design that allows drives to be swapped in less than one minute, significantly reducing downtime and promoting Qualstar's industry-leading ease of use. Connecting through the use of SCSI and Fibre Channel today, or other emerging networking architectures such as iSCSI, is enabled within seconds, by simply plugging in the appropriate Qualstar IPM (SM) (Interface Personality Module).

"Our new RLS family builds on our global experience, shipping thousands of TLS-Series tape libraries to mid-sized enterprises throughout the world for more than six years," said William Gervais, President of Qualstar. "We have extended our Simply Reliable (SM) design experience to meet the requirements of rack mount-format library users, giving them the options and power they need to meet their rapidly escalating storage demands."

Scalability is also built into the RLS series. Field upgrade kits are available, enabling users to increase the capacity and throughput of models without the need for additional modules, saving valuable rack space. For instance, one kit increases the capacity of the RLS-4221 library by more than 60 percent in less than 15 minutes. Another kit adds two additional tape drives, effectively doubling data throughput. Upgrading the tape drives as new models are introduced can increase capacity and performance even further.

RLS-Series options also include Q-Link(TM), Qualstar's web-based remote library manager. Q-Link enables administrators and support personnel with web access anywhere in the world to configure, monitor and manage any RLS- or TLS-Series tape library. Q-Link allows deploying libraries where needed without reliance on having highly trained people at every location. Q-Link will be available in early 2002.

Designed For Reliability

Qualstar's unique Simply Reliable library designs are rugged, high-precision leadscrew-based mechanisms powered by brushless DC motors for enhanced longevity. Digital closed-loop motion control systems and optical position sensors assure fast, trouble-free cartridge handling for many years. The RLS-Series libraries have an exceptionally high Mean Exchanges Between Failure specification: greater than 1,000,000 MEBF. All Qualstar libraries carry a three-year warranty.

Shipments of RLS-Series libraries will begin in mid-January 2002. Pricing begins at $9,274.

About Qualstar Corporation

Founded in 1984, Qualstar Corporation is a leading manufacturer of automated tape libraries used for backup, archival storage, data protection and storage management applications. Its TLS-Series libraries are well known throughout the world for rugged, Simply Reliable designs yielding years of trouble-free operation. Qualstar Tape Libraries are sold, installed, and supported worldwide by selected Original Equipment Manufacturers, Value Added Resellers, and Systems Integrators. Qualstar Corporation is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange under the symbol QBAK. More information is available from Qualstar's web site (www.qualstar.com), or by phone at 805.583.7744.

Statements in this news release concerning the future business, operating results and financial condition of the company are "forward-looking" statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties that could cause actual performance and results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect the company's actual results include unexpected shortages of critical components, unexpected product design problems, and adverse changes in market demand for tape libraries or Qualstar's products. Further information on these and other potential factors that could affect the company's financial results are included in Qualstar's Form 10-K dated September 28, 2000, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Qualstar and the Qualstar logo are registered trademarks of Qualstar Corporation. Q-Link is a trademark of Qualstar Corporation. SuperDLT is a trademark of Quantum. LTO is a trademark of Hewlett Packard, Seagate, and IBM. AIT is a trademark of Sony.