In a challenge to NEC Corp, whose Ultralite is going well in the US, Seiko-Epson Co has developed a super-light NEC PC-9800-compatible laptop of its computer of its own: called the Epson PC-286 Note Executive, it weighs just 4 lbs 12 oz, comparable to the weight of the Ultralite; with the cover closed, it measures 8.3 by 11.8 by 1.4 and includes a 16-bit NEC V30 microprocessor to give it 9800 compatibility; it has 640Kb memory, 1,200bps internal modem and MS-DOS 3.3 plus Memo, an integrated package with Japanese language word processing, spreadsheet and file system all in ROM; it has an eight grey-scale black and white liquid crystal diode display and the external memory unit has two slots; it is $3,300 and Seiko Epson hopes to do 10,000 in the first year of marketing, from September.
