Foreign Government Orders 220 LaserCard Read/Write Drives from Drexler Technology for Use with 350,000 Optical Memory ID Cards

Business Wire, March 27, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 2002

Drexler Technology Corporation (Nasdaq:DRXR), manufacturer of multi-biometric border security and immigrant resident ID cards, has received an order from a foreign government for 220 LaserCard read/write drives and associated software, as a follow-on to the 350,000 optical memory ID cards ordered last month by the same new government customer.

The $600,000 order for drives and software, for a digital governance application, was placed through a value-added reseller, Information Spectrum, Inc. (www.informationspectrum.com), headquartered in Annandale, Virginia. Deliveries were completed the day after the order was received, using Drexler's finished goods inventory of read/write drives.

The foreign government will utilize the 220 LaserCard read/write drives in conjunction with the 350,000 LaserCard(R) optical memory cards that were ordered last month for deliveries during Drexler's 2003 fiscal year, which begins April 2002. That initial card order, which was announced on February 7, 2002, requires manufacture of the cards by a batch process from lengths of multicolor offset-printed polycarbonate sheet stock provided to Drexler by the customer's security printer.

This new batch-manufacturing technique was designed to permit governments to provide, under their tight security constraints, banknote-quality printing with secret security features on short lengths of polycarbonate sheet stock for lamination and conversion by Drexler into optical memory cards. The new batch-production technique was developed under Drexler's research and engineering programs over the past two years and is being utilized commercially for the first time under this LaserCard program.

Normally, Drexler's optical memory cards are produced completely in-house by a continuous process using silkscreen printing and laminating of 2000-foot lengths of polycarbonate roll stock. The cards manufactured by this new batch-manufacturing method are more costly than those made by Drexler's normal continuous-roll process, but it provides governments with the benefit of retaining more security printing control for digital governance programs.

Headquartered in Mountain View, Drexler Technology Corporation (www.lasercard.com) develops and manufactures optical data storage products and systems, including LaserCard(R) optical memory cards and chip-ready Smart/Optical(TM) cards -- a combination of optical memory card and smart card. Drexler's wholly owned subsidiary, LaserCard Systems Corporation, makes optical card read/write drives, develops optical card system software, and markets card-related data systems and peripherals.