That friend of angry letter writers everywhere, the Amstrad Plc PCW word processor is to be re-launched by the company early next year, 11 years after the first version hit the streets. The new PCW16 will not be seen on any streets, however, as Amstrad will sell it only through its Direct catalogue channel, for ú300. It will also be packaged with a Canon Inc inkjet printer for ú400 and with an Oki Electric Industry Co light-emitting diode printer for ú500. The PCW16 uses a Zilog Corp 16MHz Z80 chip – chairman Alan Sugar quipped that only Zilog had made more money than Amstrad out of the Z80 – and has 1Mb of RAM and 1Mb of Flash memory, in which the Windows-like word processor, spreadsheet, diary, address book and calculator software is stored. The company has abandoned its quirky 3 disk drive for a standard 3.5 drive in the new machine. Amstrad also cut the price of its Integra PCTV by ú100 to ú900 – 80MHz 80486DX2-compatible chip from IBM Corp, with 4Mb, 540Mb disk and quad speed CD-ROM built into a Teletext television, and is agressively marketing as the forerunner of a new entertainment craze. Sugar said he had a hunch that the Sega and Nintendo era is finished, but hunches come off if the price is low enough and the spec is good enough, he said. Amstrad has also cut the price of all its 80486 personal computers, which are also sold only direct.
