ALR Says Its PC Is First to Use New Design

Advanced Logic Research Inc. of Irvine has announced a new personal computer that it says is the first to use a new computer design standard.

The ALR machine uses a new design for controlling how the various parts of a computer communicate with each other. The design was established a year ago as a collaborative effort by a group of leading PC manufacturers seeking to challenge International Business Machines’ dominance of industry standards.

Although ALR is the first PC maker to trot out a product using the alternative design, a company spokesperson said the machines won’t be ready to ship to customers until November.

Other companies, including Compaq Computer Corp., Tandy Corp. and AST Research Inc., have said they also plan to offer products using the new design.

Compaq plans to bring out a machine with the new design by the end of 1989. But the company “doesn’t announce products before we’re ready to ship them,” said spokesman John Sweney.

Jim Ashbrook, an AST senior vice president, said the Irvine-based company is developing a machine that will use the new standard. However, computer chips that will enable PC manufacturers to build the machines are not expected to be available in large volumes until later this year from Intel Corp., a Silicon Valley semiconductor company.

AST and Compaq were members of the so-called “Gang of Nine” group of PC makers that announced last year a joint development project to come up with a new computer “bus,” or data pathway, for the industry. The design was proposed as an alternative to IBM’s Micro Channel bus, which is used inside that company’s Personal System/2 line.