Crawley, West Sussex-based Zye Technology Ltd has entered the desktop market with the launch of the BlueLinear line of personal computers. There are three models to choose from: the BlueLinear 33, BlueLinear 66 and BlueLinear Pentium 66. The 33 is based on Intel Corp’s 80486DX33 processor and has 4Mb of RAM, a VESA, Video Electronic Systems Association-compliant local bus, 1Mb VESA video accelator board and a removable hard disk drive caddie as standard. It is fitted with one parallel, two serial, one game, two floppy drives and input-output ports. Zye will pre-configure the machines for multimedia operation that conforms to the Multimedia Personal Computer 2 standard. A dual speed CD-ROM is fitted with a 16-bit stereo sound board and there are two 8 Watt speakers. It comes with a three-button mouse and keyboard. The BlueLinear 66 has the same system specification but is based on the 80486DX/66 processor. They each cost UKP855. The top of the range is the BlueLinear Pentium 66, based on the P60 66MHz processor. It is provided with a choice of monitor and hard disk drive and, therefore, a range of prices. All three are available now and Zye expects to sell 1,000 before Christmans. The company has also launched a range of components for these machines that enables upgrading and reconfiguring, although the central processor cannot be changed. Zye is better known as the seller of peripherals and accessories, as well as the distributor of other companies’ products. It started life in 1991 and this year expects to turn over UKP7m. It says that in January the BlueLinear 33 will be phased out and a machine based on the 66MHz 80486DX2 processor will become Zye’s entry-level machine. It will also launch a machine based on Intel’s P90 Pentium. Zye says that given the competition in the personal computer market it has no intention of basing its fortunes on its boxes or of going for market share. Rather, the personal computers will sit along side its other products to give its customers a mix and match option.
