TAIWANESE PC maker Acer has introduced the next generation of its computer systems for multimedia applications.
Called the AcerPAC 450 (where the PAC stands for Personal Activity Centre), the system is based on Intel's 486 microprocessor.
The AcerPAC 450 is an improvement on the AcerPAC, the company's first release of its multimedia PC. The AcerPAC, launched at Acer's annual distributors' meeting in Cancun, Mexico, last year, was based on 386SX microchip technology.
The new version, while built around a more powerful microchip, still comes with some of the same technology that set the AcerPAC apart from other PCs available at the time. Incorporating a CD-ROM (compact disc read only memory) stereo system, the computer is designed to allow its users to perform a number of functions simultaneously.
With a telephone, fax/modem and answering machine integrated - together with the stereo set-up - the system, with its personal computing hardware, is geared towards increasing the productivity of its users.
Acer has by no means been the first computer maker to attempt to combine such functions as telephony, fax/modem, CD-ROM and sound technology with multimedia personal computing. The company must, however, be given credit for making an attempt to deliver what should be a highly complex piece of hardware at considerably user-friendly level.