SanDisk Introduces the Personal Information Carrier `PIC', World's First Solid-State Wearable Data Storage Device.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 1999--

U.S. Army Awards Multi-Million Dollar Contract to Kaneb Technology

Unit to Buy More Than Two Million SanDisk PICs Over 5 Years to Store

Medical Data for Soldiers; The SanDisk PIC Is Also Targeted At The

General Health Care Market For The Capture And

Storage Of Civilian Medical Records

SanDisk Corporation (Nasdaq:SNDK) today introduced its new Personal Information Carrier (PIC), the world's first solid-state, wearable data storage device.

Kaneb Services Inc., (NYSE:KAB) Dallas, TX, and SanDisk also announced that the U.S. Army, executive agent for the Department of Defense's (DoD's) PIC acquisition effort, has awarded a multi-million dollar contract to Kaneb's wholly owned subsidiary, Informatech Inc. (ITI).

ITI, Frederick, MD, is a telemedicine systems integration, telemedical consulting and network engineering company which will supply the DoD with the PIC products from SanDisk. The PICs, worn around the neck by military personnel, will be worn along with the traditional dog tag and will store medical records and identification information.

The rugged PICs are match-book size, solid state (no moving parts) flash memory cards weighing only two grams and utilizing a low-cost, easily integrated serial interface. If all contract options are exercised, the Army would order approximately two million PICs over five years with deliveries starting in the fourth quarter of this year.

Lt. Col. Bradley J. Dawkins, Air Force physician and project manager for the DoD's PIC Project, said, "We are delighted to have awarded this significant contract to InformaTech Inc. After thorough testing, the SanDisk PIC was selected for several reasons. SanDisk has demonstrated technology leadership in the industry, the company has a progressive capacity roadmap for the PIC, and the product itself is very rugged and durable."

He added, "The PIC can provide considerable value to the DoD and to individual service members. The PIC can be easily inserted into a laptop PC at a Battalion Aid Station, for example, and medical and identification data, such as allergies, blood type and medication history, can be quickly obtained. New information about treatments or vaccinations given can be easily added to the personal database stored on the PIC. When the service member returns to a facility with substantial information systems, then the main database can be updated with data from the PIC."

Eli Harari, SanDisk's president and CEO, said, "The PIC represents an exciting new market for SanDisk with immense potential in the storage of personal information. This broad market includes military agencies, government departments and health care companies worldwide. SanDisk intends to aggressively promote the PIC to hospitals, HMOs, university medical centers, clinics, nursing homes, insurance companies and numerous other entities involved in the health care field. We are pleased to have a marketing agreement with Kaneb's subsidiary, InformaTech Inc., to address market opportunities in the military and government sectors and various other vertical markets such as telemedicine."

John R. Barnes, Kaneb Services, Inc. chairman and CEO, said, "The opportunity to offer an exceptional new technology, SanDisk's PIC, to the military and government sectors demonstrates the value-added services we provide to our customers. This multi-year contract adds a new dimension to our existing telemedical consulting and network engineering work with the Department of Defense and Department of Justice and clearly provides additional opportunities in the private sector as well."

The PIC is a key enabling technology within the DoD's presidentially-mandated Force Health Protection Program. The PIC is intended to fill the data gap identified during the Persian Gulf War in which the past medical data of service personnel was not always available on the battlefield. In the paper-based system, treatments and exposures during field operations were not consistently documented. Incomplete and non-electronic repositories of medical data after deployment hindered data collection for population-based medical analysis. This complicated investigations into the Persian Gulf illness, according to the DoD.

The PIC stores pertinent electronic medical data about the person who carries it. It, in effect, stores an abridged version of the individual's electronic medical record. The PIC will serve as the primary medical data source about the individual in settings where computer network connectivity to larger databases is not available, providing in-the-field health care providers with immediate access to the patient's most important clinical data.

Personal medical data is written to the PIC prior to deployment. If a service member requires medical attention in the field, medical personnel will use a desktop or laptop PC, to access, up-date and add to the service member's medical data stored on the PIC. Once the service member reaches a location in which connectivity to more centralized data storage is available, the PIC data will be used to up-date these larger centralized databases, from which population analyses can later be conducted.

The PIC provides for systematic availability of baseline medical information in a military theater of operations, as well as more complete and reliable capture of data about the care received in the field. The result is better care for the individual.

The PIC includes an intelligent controller which gives the product forward and backward compatibility which means that a system designed today to work with the PIC will work with any PIC in the future and future PIC-based systems will work with PIC products delivered today. The PIC also includes various security features including a tamper proof ID. Additional security can be added, for features such as password protection and data encryption, as a part of the DoD's application software. Information on a PIC can be easily accessed because the PIC slides into a specially designed Type II PCMCIA adapter card which in turn can be inserted into any Type II or Type III PCMCIA slot on a computer or reader device. PICs are available in capacities ranging from 8 megabytes (MB) to 32MB with 96MB available in 2000.

Kaneb Services, Inc. provides technology-based and technical services for a wide array of industries worldwide. Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Kaneb performs services for government, finance, insurance, health care, energy and other technology-specific customers. Kaneb's operations include an international industrial services firm and information technology companies. Kaneb, as general partner, also manages and operates the pipeline and terminal assets owned by Kaneb Pipe Line Partners, LP (NYSE:KPP).

SanDisk Corporation, the world's largest supplier of flash data storage products, designs, manufactures and markets industry-standard, solid-state data, digital imaging and audio storage products using its patented, high density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is based in Sunnyvale, CA.

The matters discussed in this news release contain forward looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties as described under the caption "Factors That May Affect Future Results" in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company assumes no obligation to update the information in this release.

SanDisk's web site/home page address: http://www.sandisk.com

InformaTech's web site address: http://www.iteye.com