Souping Up Computers for Extended Mileage : A couple hope their upgrades make Alpha Systems Lab of Irvine the high-tech ‘success story of the 1990s.’

Not all computer companies are suffering these days.

Rose Hwang and her husband, Mitchell Phan, who own Alpha Systems Lab Inc. in Irvine, have seen their small company’s sales triple in the past year and are pursuing their biggest contract to date--a deal valued at more than $20 million.

Four years ago, Phan was a design engineer at Triconex Corp., an Irvine manufacturer of computerized control systems. Tired of working for someone else, he decided to start his own business.

He noticed that a growing number of companies were keeping their older computers longer instead of buying new ones.

“I found that many companies prefer to upgrade their systems because it costs less for them to train employees to operate the machines,” Phan said.

Phan left Triconex to become a computer consultant. In April, 1990, when the U.S. economy was beginning to falter, he and Hwang started Alpha Systems to design and manufacture circuit boards for customers seeking to upgrade their computers. Their company also provides so-called systems integration services--assembling computer parts from different manufacturers into a customized system.

Alpha Systems was established at an opportune time. With economic uncertainty, many companies become especially cost conscious and try to squeeze the maximum use out of older office equipment. Alpha Systems’ circuit boards can be plugged into an old computer to boost its power, so it need not be scrapped.

Phan, vice president of engineering, has designed products for many computers, including models by IBM, AT&T;, Zenith Data Systems, Compaq Computer, AST Research and NEC.

Through aggressive marketing and tight financial controls, Alpha Systems has blossomed and is one of the fastest-growing small businesses in Orange County. Sales have tripled to $3 million this year, from just under $1 million last year, and its staff has grown to 20 people.

Clients include such giants as Boeing, McDonnell Douglas Eastman Kodak and PaineWebber.

Alpha Systems, which has been designated by the Southern California Regional Purchasing Council as a minority contractor, is in hot pursuit of a contract that it hopes will make it a middle-size company in a year, Phan said. The contract, worth $20 million to $35 million, is to upgrade computer systems in several federal agencies nationwide.

A decision about who wins the contract is expected to be announced within the next few weeks. If Alpha Systems wins, Phan said, he plans to hire 20 more employees and expand his company’s manufacturing facility.

Although it might be cheaper to manufacture their circuit boards in such places as Mexico or Hong Kong, the couple said they chose to make them in the United States.

“We wanted to give back something to this country that took us in when we needed it desperately,” Phan said.

Hwang, Alpha Systems’ president, said she and Phan dream of building their business into “the AST Research success story of the 1990s,” a reference to the Irvine firm started by three Asian immigrants in 1980 that has grown into one of the leading manufacturers of personal computers.

“My husband and I have a great partnership,” she said. “He runs the technical side of the business, while I market and manage Alpha Systems’ daily operations.”

Those managing and marketing duties did not come easily to Hwang, who had no prior business experience. Hwang studied music at UCLA and had worked as a piano instructor and court interpreter.

Hwang and Phan said they draw strength from their experiences as refugees. Phan left Vietnam on one of the last flights from Saigon before the Communist takeover in 1975. Then 19, he and his family settled in Covina, where he worked and saved money to pursue an engineering education.

When Hwang, then 17, and her family left Vietnam by boat in 1976 with 83 other refugees, they were caught and brought back on a Vietnamese gunship. On their way back, she and the other refugees mutinied, took over the ship and escaped to Bangkok, where she and her family stayed for a few months before settling in Orange County.

Hwang and Phan, both from middle-class families in Vietnam, spoke fluent French but barely any English when they arrived. They met while UCLA students.