AST RESEARCH CUTS PRICES ON PREMIUM SE SERVERS BY AS MUCH AS 23 PERCENT

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 10, 1993 -- Setting new levels of price/performance
for the server market, AST Research Inc. today significantly reduced
prices of its Premium SE servers.

Effective immediately, suggested list prices have been dropped from 10 to
23 percent with prices now ranging from $3,295 for a base model Premium SE
4/33 (486DX/33MHz) to $7,535 for a fully configured Premium SE 4/66d
(486DX2/66MHz). AST also today lowered prices on its Premium SE 4/66d
Cupid FASTboard and 500MB and 1GB FastSCSI hard drives. The FASTboard is
AST's one-board solution to upgrading to faster processing power.

AST's Premium SE server family has been engineered to provide the
performance, expandability and fault tolerance required for sophisticated
networking and multiuser environments. A recent independent server
evaluation conducted by InfoWorld, a leading computer-industry
publication, noted AST's Premium servers outperform its most noteworthy
competitors by as much as 23 percent.

"Feature for feature, AST's Premium SE product line is now priced at or
below most comparable products on the market," said Larry Fortmuller,
director of high-performance system marketing. "AST's record volume
shipments over the past year have provided the avenue for us to offer
customers a dramatically high value at a very low cost. n

AST's world-class manufacturing capabilities, quality assurance and audit
and certification labs provide the foundation to produce a highly reliable
system. Also, AST's servers undergo stringent qualification and
compatibility testing through the industry's top operating system
suppliers' certification programs.

AST servers support up to 8GB of internal hard drive storage. An optional
single-channel high-performance caching controller or an optional AST
multi-channel disk array equipped with the I960 Risc processor manage
multiple hard drives independent of the host system for speedy network
responsiveness and data redundancy. Both controllers support FastSCSI-2,
delivering 10MB-per-second data transfer rates, a significant gain in
speed over standard SCSI's 5MB-per-second data transfer rate.

FastSCSI hard drives mount in slide-out trays to make it easy to upgrade or
"hot" swap in a disk array environment. Also, a SCSI backplane design
provides cable-free drive installation.

Additional features include AST FlashBIOS allowing the BIOS to be upgraded
through software and AST's Premium VGA integrated video for accelerated
video performance.

AST's Premium SE server family is available through AST's network of
qualified resellers. 

Award-Winning Service and Reliability

AST recently received a Reader's Choice award for Service and Reliability
through magazine as noted in the Feb. 9, 1993, issue. "This award is a
testimony to AST's commitment to provide overall system reliability and
customer satisfaction," said Fortmuller.

AST's servers are backed by one of the industry's most comprehensive
support programs, including a toll-free technical hotline, AST On-Line
24-hour bulletin board service and AST Info-FAX to access a broad
selection of technical support documentation. AST has more than 1,400
Authorized Service Centers nationwide, as well as 300 Advanced System
Support Centers to provide a high-level of localized Service.

AST has fostered solid partnerships with the leading operating systems
vendors, including Novell, SCO, Banyan and IBM, and participates in
technical cross training programs with those vendors to more fully support
its customers. 

Corporate Background

Recently ranked number 431 on the Fortune 500 list of America's largest
industrial companies and 451 on the Forbes Profit List, AST Research Inc.
is a leading market share holder of desktop, file server and notebook
computers. Revenue for calendar year 1992 totalled more than $1.1
billion.

AST's product lines include the Premium SE servers, Power Premium, Bravo
and Advantage! desktop systems, PowerExec notebooks and Manhattan SMP
multiprocessor, LAN Magazine's "Product of the Year." The company is
represented in 100 countries and operates 34 subsidiaries and sales
offices worldwide.

AST, 16215 Alton Parkway, PO Box 57005, Irvine, CA 92718
714-727-4141;  800-876-4278;  fax: 714-727-9355

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