Irvine, California-based AST Research Inc says that its Advantage! desktop and notebook computers will be sold as complete systems offering new software packages developed by Microsoft Corp for the home user and small business markets: the Advantage! family was launched on August 29 at the opening of five Circuit City superstores in the Houston area, and will be available via Circuit City’s US-wide chain of 166 stores bythe year-end; Advantage! will include 80386SX, 80486SX and 80486 desktop models as well as 80386SX notebooks, and AST says that they have been designed for the consumer market with a plug-and-play approach; they are pre-loaded with software, MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0 as well as several new Microsoft software applications designed to run in the graphical user interface environment; the systems include access software for the Prodigy on-line information service and some Advantage! models also offer WinFax, a Windows-based communications pack for facsimile.
