Chip Advance Spawns a Burst of New Products : Computers: Numerous makers are unveiling systems in anticipation of Intel’s new Pentium.

A flurry of personal computers based on Intel Corp.’s most powerful microprocessor, the Pentium, will be launched today, even though some makers will not be able to get the chips in volume for some time.

Analysts said a wide range of products will be based on the chip, from powerful servers to lower-end personal computers--priced as high as $70,000 for systems for mainframe users to PCs at about $4,200.

Two dozen or so PC makers will announce systems based on Pentium, but some will not be widely available for several months.

Intel’s widely touted Pentium is its next-generation microprocessor, eventually to replace its 486 and 386 chips, the widely used “brains” of personal computers.

Pentium was introduced in March by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor maker.

“It’s a coronation, saying that we still love Intel,” said Cheryl Currid, president of a Houston consulting firm. “It’s still the gospel according to Intel.

“The industry is not shaken by other things going on,” she added, referring to other new-generation systems due out soon.

Later this month, Digital Equipment Corp. is expected to roll out the first of its PCs based on its new processor, the Alpha chip. Digital’s PCs are coming out in tandem with Microsoft’s next-generation operating system, called NT.

Microsoft has also designed NT to run on Pentium-based systems.

Compaq Computer; Dell Computer; Zenith Data Systems, a unit of Groupe Bull; Hewlett Packard; American Telephone & Telegraph’s NCR Corp.; Advanced Logic Research; AST Research, and Digital are among the two dozen or so computer makers expected to announce Pentium PCs.

One notable giant that will be missing from the barrage of press releases today is International Business Machines Corp., which is developing Pentium-based PCs but plans to wait until it can obtain the chip in quantity.

“Our policy is to announce when we have a product,” an IBM spokeswoman said. Other PC firms “won’t be able to get chips yet in volume from Intel.”

While IBM would not say when it expects to have its PCs, it said it intends to support the chip across its PC line, from the home-computing PS/1 line to high-end servers in the PS/2 line. (Servers connect PCs linked on a network and store their data.)

Analysts said Intel is likely to ship about 10,000 Pentiums by the end of June and 160,000 worldwide by the end of the year.

International Data Corp., a research firm in Framingham, Mass., said about 1.2 million Pentiums will be shipped in 1994, while about 26 million 486 chips will be shipped worldwide.

Intel’s capital investment in manufacturing facilities in the last three years is more than what it spent in its first 22 years in business.

Many companies are developing servers based on Pentium, a demonstration of the chip’s increased power over its predecessors.

Intel said Pentium has 3.1 million transistors and will be capable of 112 million calculations per second, about five times faster than the 486.

“We really see this as a server revolution,” said Rob DiJiacomo, director of product management at NCR. NCR will unveil systems ranging from a desktop workstation at about $18,000 to a mainframe-level system running several Pentiums in parallel. These systems may be priced as high as $70,000.

Dell, Compaq, Zenith, Hewlett Packard and others will also introduce PC servers, analysts said.