AST Computer began the launch of the new 166MHz Pentium Bravo PC line in Hong Kong last week with a piano recital.
The chosen piece was Habanera from Carmen and while the underlying theme of the event was the expectation of corporate computer buyers seeking top performance to shout 'Bravo, Bravo', the real message of what was inside this new AST box was not as corny.
Michael Willcocks, AST's newly appointed Asia Pacific senior vice-president, said the new Bravo LC and Bravo MS products were the result of strong partnerships with Intel Semiconductor, Microsoft and AST's major stakeholder, Samsung.
AST vows to be one of the first, if not the first, PC vendor into market with any given system after a new chip release from Intel - the corporate aim following the appointment of Ian Diery as chief executive late last year.
Rival vendors such as Digital, HP, Dell and IBM have also announced systems incorporating the 166MHz Pentium chip but Mr Willcocks maintains AST will be the first to deliver the products with Intel's highest clock speed in any serious volume.
He said it would use Intel-designed motherboards (with the 430X PCI chipset), offer a choice of Windows 95 or 3.11 for Workgroups as the OS and get priority delivery of Samsung monitors and semiconductors to ensure supply to the market.
One of the other major claims made was that new AST Bravo systems would be 30 per cent cheaper than rival systems and 20 per cent faster than its Bravo predecessors. The budget-priced Bravo LC model has a starting price of $11,500 and the high-end Bravo MS at $16,500.