Provides up to 10 Times More Power for Undersea Networks

    SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- SDL, Inc. (Nasdaq: SDLI)
announced today at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference in San Diego,
California, a new pump laser module for use in optically amplified systems
that features a ten-fold increase in optical power over conventional pump
modules.  Pump lasers are the key components that deliver optical power to
fiber optic amplifiers used in dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM)
and undersea fiber optic networks.  The SDL-RL30 Series pump laser delivers
1.5 Watts or about ten times the power available from traditional pump lasers.
This remarkable performance enables remote pumping of optical amplifiers for
short haul undersea networks such as those connecting islands or cities along
a common coastline.  SDL is now shipping sample quantities to customers for
evaluation and qualification.
    "This revolutionary product allows our customers to achieve undersea spans
of approximately 200 kilometers without requiring the pump lasers to be
deployed undersea," said Donald R. Scifres, SDL's chairman and chief executive
officer.  "The RL30 is another example of our strategy to develop industry
leading solutions to increase the capacity of fiber optical networks in a cost
effective manner."
    The SDL-RL30 Series pump laser uses new fiber laser technology by
combining multiple semiconductor lasers with double-clad fiber to produce very
high optical power in a single-mode fiber.  Low cost, high power multi-mode
lasers emitting light near 900 nm are coupled to successive stages of special
fiber which upshift the wavelength to the 1455 nm to 1480 nm range.  This
wavelength can be transmitted over relatively long spans of fiber optic cable
with much less power loss than shorter pump laser wavelengths.  The
availability of very high power in the 1480 nm wavelength range enables
undersea fiber optic links of a few hundred kilometers to be constructed with
the pump laser at the network terminals on shore even though the optical
amplifiers may be submerged undersea.  This significantly reduces the
electrical power consumption of the underwater amplifiers and dramatically
improves the reliability of the submerged equipment.
    Statements in this press release which are not historical including
statements regarding SDL's or management's intentions, hopes, beliefs,
expectations, representations, projections, plans or predictions of the future
are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Such statements include statements regarding
the potential power, reliability and applications as well as the timing of
commercialization of the pump laser.  It is important to note that the
Company's actual results could differ materially from those in any such
forward-looking statements.  Factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially include the company's inability to achieve expected power,
reliability levels and ranges of wavelengths in commercial production
quantities for the pump laser, lack of market acceptance, qualification or
manufacturing of the new product, and the risk factors listed from time to
time in the Company's SEC reports including but not limited to the annual
report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1997, and quarterly
reports on Forms 10-Q for the first three quarters of 1998.
    SDL designs, manufactures and markets fiber optic related products, lasers
and optoelectronic based systems.  The company's products are used in a
diversity of markets such as telecommunications, cable television, dense
wavelength division multiplexing, satellite communications, printing, medical,
and materials processing markets.

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