Irvine, Calif., July 27, 1992 -- To maintain its competitive leadership
position, AST Research Inc. today announced it has reduced retail prices
by as much as 47 percent on its complete product line, while maintaining
current dealer discounts. Effective immediately, expected new street
pricing should rival direct mail offerings. The company also announced a
new Windows bundle with each Power Premium 210-MB model desktop system.

"It's clear that street prices on our products should rival the direct
prices quoted by the competition," said Mike Morand, vice president of
marketing. "We are leveraging our manufacturing capabilities and cost
control, rather than reseller margins, to maintain our long-term strategy
of price/performance leadership."

"Our resellers should benefit from these reductions in price by selling
more units to first-time buyers and end users who are interested in
upgrading to a name-brand manufacturer at an affordable price," said James
Schraith, vice president of U.S. sales and service.

Products affected in the price reduction include the award-winning Premium
Exec notebook line which offers a complete portable computing solution at
a very competitive price with reductions of up to 47 percent. "Given that
we have not changed the dealer discount, our resellers should be able to
sell the Premium Exec 386SX/25 (25-MHz) monochrome model for as much as 10
to 15 percent less than comparable models from Compaq and Dell," said
Schraith.

Bundled with 2MB of RAM, DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1, a Microsoft mouse and a
mouse pad, the Bravo family of desktop computer systems received price
reductions of up to 31 percent. The Bravo family comes standard with an
80-MB hard disk drive and an SVGA monitor.

"AST has pioneered the multibrand strategy with the second generation of
the Bravo family of product which offers a proven design, while
competitors are just entering the market," said Morand.

The average street price of the AST Bravo desktop system is expected to be
20 to 25 percent lower than the Compaq Deskpro i and up to seven percent
less than the new Prolinea. "While other manufacturers have announced
first-generation products that aren't shipping, AST is fully capable of
meeting the increased volume these new prices will create," said
Schraith.

Announced today, AST's enhanced Premium SE server line offers a host of
scalable features, providing a complete hardware solution for local area
network and multi-user environments. Pricing of the Premium server line,
when normalized for storage capacity, represents a 14 to 30 percent price
reduction.

"The enhanced server product family is compatible with AST's lower system
prices overall and is in keeping with our strategy to provide value and
higher levels of performance to our customers," said Schraith.

The recently-introduced Power Premium desktop computers also received price
reductions. Designed to optimize Windows applications, these EISA-based
systems feature advanced graphics technology for accelerated performance
in Windows environments. Each 210-MB hard drive model Power Premium will
be bundled with DOS 5.0, Microsoft Windows 3.1, 8MB of RAM, a Microsoft
mouse and a mouse pad.

The Power Premium 386 systems which include the bundle are the 3/25 Model
213W, introduced at $2,895 and the 3/33 Model 213W, introduced with a
retail price of $3,095. The Power Premium i486 systems introduced with the
new bundle range in price with the 4/25e Model 213W introduced at $2,995;
4/33 Model 213W with a retail price of $3,495; and 4/50d Model 213W priced
at $3,695.

Service and Support

All AST computers include a one-year parts and labor warranty. AST has
8,000 trained service technicians in more than 1,200 Authorized Service
Centers nationwide. On-site maintenance is available anywhere within a
50-mile radius of more than 250 of the authorized AST on-site service
locations. Toll-free customer service is 90 seconds away (average
telephone call pickup time) Monday thru Friday from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. (PDT)
and 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. (PDT) on Saturdays.

AST On-Line!, the worldwide electronic bulletin board service, provides a
24-hour electronic reference library. Also, AST Info-Fax provides
up-to-date technical information sent directly to fax machines through an
automated 24-hour service .

Corporate Background

AST's product lines include the Premium, Bravo, Advantage! and Premium Exec
families which allow users to choose from a full range of price and
performance options. The company is represented in 100 countries and
operate 39 subsidiaries and sales offices worldwide.

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 an information technology company holding a prominent market share
position for desktop, file server and notebook computers.

The company reported record sales of $944.1 million for the 1992 fiscal
year ended June 27, 1992, compared to sales of $688.5 million for fiscal
year 1991.

AST Research corporate headquarters is located at 16215 Alton Parkway, P.O.
Box 19658, Irvine, Calif. 92713-9658. Telephone: (714) 727-4141, (800)
876-4278. Fax: (714) 727-9355.

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