SMART Modular Technologies Announces Puerto Rican Manufacturing Facility Expansion

Business Wire, Nov 6, 1997

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 6, 1997--SMART Modular Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMOD) announced today that it has reached an agreement with the government of Puerto Rico to lease an 83,000 square foot facility in Aguada, Puerto Rico.

This new facility will replace SMART's existing 23,000 square foot facility in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The Company currently plans to move to the new facility in late November.

"The move is an important part of SMART's plans for fiscal 1998," noted Ajay Shah, SMART's President and CEO. "We view Puerto Rico as an attractive location for manufacturing, and this step positions us with the space to add to our manufacturing capacity there. Coupled with our facilities in Fremont, Calif. and East Kilbride, Scotland, we believe that we are positioned to address the market opportunities we see during fiscal 1998 in the North American and European markets."

"Our move to the facility in Aguada represents a cooperative undertaking between the government of Puerto Rico and SMART," added David Mullin, SMART's Chief Financial Officer. "It expands the manufacturing and employment base in Puerto Rico and provides SMART an opportunity to expand in a location that offers access to a well-educated, well-trained work force and an overall cost and tax structure that is extremely competitive by worldwide standards."

Since opening its Puerto Rican production facility in May of 1995, SMART has continued to increase capacity and meet its customers' needs with advanced surface-mount, test, packaging and logistics technologies. "SMART has been a strong addition to our economic development efforts, and we are pleased with their continued growth and success," commented Jaime Morgan-Stubbe, Director of the Economic Development Administration (FOMENTO). "Additionally, we are excited about SMART's expansion and goal to add 400 new jobs in Puerto Rico over the next three years," stated Morgan-Stubbe.

SMART Modular Technologies, Inc. is a leading independent manufacturer of specialty and standard memory modules, Flash memory cards, high-performance embedded computer modules, as well as communication card solutions. SMART offers more than 500 products to leading OEMs in the computer, networking, and telecommunications industries. SMART has manufacturing facilities in California, Puerto Rico, and Scotland, a design center in India and sales organizations worldwide. More information on SMART can be obtained on the Internet at http://www.smartm.com .

CONTACT: SMART Modular Technologies, Inc.

Becky Takeda, 510/624-8104

btakeda@smartm.com

or

Sterling Communications, Inc.

Erica Osman, 408/441-4100

eosman@sterlingpr.com