Western Digital Introduces New Microchip Line : Technology: “Chip-sets” unveiled by the company will simplify the core electronics of personal computers. Analysts say PC makers should find them attractive.

Western Digital Corp. introduced a line of microchips Tuesday that further reduce the size and complexity of the core electronics in a personal computer, and analysts said the new “chip-sets” should prove attractive to many PC manufacturers.

The three new chip-sets are designed to work with Intel Corp. 286 and 386 microprocessors, which lie at the heart of high-speed International Business Machines Corp. personal computers and compatible machines. While the microprocessor provides the basic computing functions, the chip-sets perform a host of subsidiary functions, such as controlling access to memory and communications.

Irvine-based Western Digital emphasized that the chip-sets are specially designed to work well with its other components, such as intelligent disk drive controllers and video chips. “Nobody else has all the pieces. No one else can offer the total combination we can,” Western Digital Chairman Roger W. Johnson said.

Johnson said Western Digital could provide all the core electronics for a 286-based personal computer--except the microprocessor and the memory--for less than $100. He also touted the introduction as the culmination of a product strategy aimed at providing computer manufacturers with a complete internal architecture for their machines.

Stella Kelly, an analyst with Infocorp, a Santa Clara market research firm, praised the new products as “a very significant evolution” in PC technology. She said the reduction in the number of chips in each set--to three from more than 30--and in the size of the parts should be especially attractive to manufacturers of portable laptop computers.

Western Digital is a major supplier of chips and other components to PC manufacturers, although the company does not build its own PCs.