ALR Announces 2 New Notebook Computers : Technology: The Irvine firm seeks to blunt sales of rival products, says it will ship the Intel-based models in January.
Seeking to blunt sales of its rivals’ new products, Advanced Logic Research Inc. announced Wednesday it plans to begin shipping in January two new lines of briefcase-size computers.
ALR’s new VIP M and VIP SL lines represent the latest round of sparring among computer companies aiming for a share of the fast-growing $1.4-billion market for so-called notebook computers, which generally weigh 5 to 7 pounds.
ALR’s VIP M line is an upgradeable series of notebook computers based on a series of Intel Corp. microprocessors--the computer’s number-crunching command center--that so far has been used only in desktop computers. The Intel chips, ranging from the 20-megahertz 386SX to the 25-megahertz 486DX, have a three-hour battery life. Prices for the VIP M line will run from $3,995 to $4,295.
David Kirkey, ALR vice president of international sales, said in a statement that the modular notebook computers can be upgraded for faster speed in 30 seconds by exchanging a credit-card size module for one with a speedier microprocessor.
Marc Tanguay, a product specialist at ALR, said the second notebook line, the VIP SL, is priced to compete with a similar product made by AST Research Inc., a rival computer firm in Irvine that began shipping its new line of notebook computers this month.
The VIP SL line will be priced from $3,495 to $3,795, compared to AST’s $4,795 price for its newest model.
Tanguay said the line computes at speeds 25% faster than most current notebooks and has 33% more battery life--four hours.
ALR’s line of 7-pound VIP SL computers is based on Intel’s 386SL chip, which is designed for notebook computers and operates at a top speed of 25 megahertz, faster than many desktop computers available today.
Although AST’s latest notebook computer, the Premium 386SX/25, is also based on a 25-megahertz chip, the company chose to buy the microprocessor from a competitor of Intel, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. of Sunnyvale.
Genelle Trader, portable systems marketing director for AST, said the company also expects to have a product that employs the new Intel chip, in addition to its machine based on the AMD chip. She said the announcement would come in a few days.
Analysts said that by announcing its VIP machine three months before shipping, ALR is trying to head off competitors such as AST.
ALR also introduced an update to its first line of notebook computers, the Venture series, two months ago. But the VIP line is faster and holds more memory in its hard disk drives, as much as 80 megabytes of memory, or about 80,000 double-spaced pages of paper.
ALR also said it expects to ship a notebook computer with a color screen in the first quarter of 1992. The computer will be based on so-called passive matrix technology, which to date cannot rival color technology in desktop computers.
Both ALR’s and AST’s new notebook lines are faster than the speediest notebook computers from Irvine-based Toshiba America, the notebook computer market leader, which has yet to announce a product based on a 25-megahertz chip.
