NEC TECHNOLOGIES. INC. ENTERS DIRECT DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL WITH THE NEC
SELECT SOLUTIONS PRODUCT FAMILY: COMPANY OFFERS CUSTOM SOLUTIONS FOR
VOLUME BUYERS

Boxborough, Massachusetts, October 19, 1992--Entering the second phase of
its NEC Select Solutions program, NEC Technologies, Inc. today announced
the opening of its Select Solutions Center, created to sell and market the
NEC Select Solutions product line directly to end-users. This new direct
sales and marketing effort complements NEC's indirect strategy, whereby
Select Solutions products are sold through a group of specially authorized
NEC resellers.

Located at the company's Boxborough, MA corporate headquarters, the NEC
Select Solutions Center is staffed with specially trained sales
representatives. Prospective customers can call the Center at (800)
374-8000 to discuss their computing solution needs, receive information,
and place orders. The company has also embarked upon an aggressive
advertising and direct mail campaign anchored by the NEC Select Solutions
Guide, a 36-page catalog which encourages buyers to call the Select
Solution Center to discuss their needs and place product orders.

"The Select Solution Center offers customers an opportunity to discuss
their computing requirements from an application perspective, whether it
be desktop publishing, imaging, networking, business applications, CAD,
etc.," said David Middleton, director of solutions marketing at NEC
Technologies. "Once we understand the application, we can offer a variety
of complete turnkey solutions to fit that need. We believe this is a far
better approach for buyers who know what they want the computer to do, but
are not fluent in technology or specifications. The PC industry has
historically forced buyers to view their requirements through a product's
specifications. With NEC Select Solutions, we have reversed this
orientation."

Customers who purchase Select Solutions products directly from NEC can
expect shipment of systems within 72 hours of credit approval. All
direct-ordered NEC Select Solutions include a 30-day money-back guarantee,
free one-year on-site service, and unlimited use of a toll-free technical
support hotline from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. EST. NEC's unique centralized
technical support organization has been extensively trained to resolve
hardware-related issues and provide preliminary software support for all
NEC Select Solutions products. As a result of special partnerships, NEC
has developed with the Select Solutions third-party software vendors, NEC
can tie into the technical support organizations of Aldus, Autodesk,
Microsoft or Novell, to resolve application software issues.

"The NEC Select Solutions concept goes far beyond simply hot-loading
software. We're focused on saving customers time and money that is
traditionally spent purchasing, installing, and Fe-configuring systems.
NEC Select Solutions are fine tuned to enable users to tap into an
application environment from the moment the system is plugged in," added
Middleton. "The purchase of pre-configured, optimized systems requires a
certain amount of vendor advice and consultation. The Select Solutions
Center sales representatives have been trained extensively to advise
customers as to which solution best suits their computing needs."

All NEC Select Solutions can be customized to accommodate specific customer
application requirements. However, for larger customers who have one or
more defined configurations containing unique or customer-proprietary
hardware or software, NEC is offering a unique program whereby custom
solutions are created, optimized, tested and stored in a secure
manufacturing system. Customers, on demand, can then order their unique
solution configurations which will be built, tested and shipped within 72
hours.

NEC Select Solutions

Introduced in August 1992, NEC Select Solutions are designed to provide
users with complete pre-configured--CPU, monitor, application software,
mouse, tutorials--optimized systems that are easy-to-use, easy-to-buy, and
involve no system set-up.

Through partnerships with software companies such as Microsoft, Novell,
Aldus, and Autodesk, NEC has integrated its hardware with leading software
applications to deliver turnkey "solutions-ready" systems for business,
desktop publishing, CAD/CAM and LAN applications.

In addition to the convenience of buying pre-configured systems complete
with pre-loaded software optimized to run directly "out of the box," NEC
Select Solution systems also reduce by up to 90% the cost of system
configuration. As a result, NEC Select Solutions preserve financial and
time resources, providing a valuable alternative to purchasing components
separately.

NEC Technologies. Inc.

NEC Technologies, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of computers and
peripherals for the North American market. Product lines include,
award-winning ProSpeed laptop computers, UltraLite notebook computers,
MultiSync FG monitors, Silentwriter and Colormate printers, PowerMate
Image and Express systems products, and InterSect CD-ROM hardware. NEC
Technologies, Inc. is a subsidiary of NEC Corporation.

NEC Technologies, 1414 Massachusetts Ave, Boxborough, MA 01719
508-264-8000
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NEC SELECT SOLUTIONS: OPTIMIZATION BACKGROUNDER

Introduced in August 1992, NEC's family of Select Solutions systems were
developed to go above and beyond the system customization efforts of other
computer vendors who were simply bundling or "hot-loading" software. This
"hot-loading" concept called for customers to be knowledgeable about the
hardware requirements necessary for the optimal performance of the
application software that is so vital to their business operations. Given
that this hardware optimization knowledge is not easily attainable, the
product offerings of other vendors fell short in that they were very time
and cost consuming to get "up-and-running."

To differentiate itself from other vendors, NEC identified several goals it
had to meet before marketing true "solutions ready" systems. These systems
needed to be: easy to use; easy to buy; cost and time effective; and
backed by a sophisticated, convenient technical support mechanism. After
nearly a year of extensive engineering, research, and testing, NEC
accomplished this mission.

Key to NEC's Select Solutions development efforts was the concept of
software and hardware optimization, resulting in flawless operation of
turnkey systems from the moment they were plugged in.

Based on NEC's award-winning line of PowerMate Image desktop computers and
MultiSync FG monitors, each NEC Select Solution begins as an optimal
system. To further enhance the performance of Select Solution systems, NEC
achieved an industry first by optimizing the set-up configurations of the
operating system, operating environment and the application software.

Optimization Leads To Increased System Performance

Realizing that Microsoft Windows is the backbone of most corporate
operating environments, NEC improved Windows performance by resetting the
CONFIG.SYS files and buffers, and installing DOS into faster upper memory
blocks (UMBs). To improve overall performance, NEC optimized the path
statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, enabling users to access Windows
first.

The concept of balanced memory was also an integral component of NEC's
efforts to make Select Solutions systems industry performance-leaders. To
ensure that users have ample memory for larger applications, NEC carefully
balanced the amount of system memory and the memory dedicated to
Smartdrive, an important Windows utility.

To further maximize Windows performance, NEC carefully examined each line
of the SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI files, and either changed or left at the
default value to maximize performance. In addition, the Windows permanent
swap file was optimally sized and placed on the hard disk closest to
critical applications requiring the most disk access.

To reduce the amount of time needed to set-up applications, only the most
frequently used export/import filers and drivers were loaded on the hard
drive. However, all filters and drivers remain easily accessible by
diskette.

During the final stage of the optimization, NEC runs a special utility to
further optimize the system hard drive and create disk performance
increases of at least 20%. As a result, all the directories are moved up
front to hasten initial system "booting" and start-up. Once in Windows,
32-bit access capability enables all directories to be cached. To
eliminate split files, make files easier to use, and speed up overall
performance, NEC unfragments all files. All files are then compressed
forward on the disk to ensure that the swap file is as close to the
critical application as possible, thereby increasing performance in the
areas of application loading, file access, and switching drivers.

Overall Convenience

To ensure that NEC Select Solutions systems are as easy-to-use as possible,
several additional convenience-oriented features have been incorporated.
For instance, the first thing a user sees after "booting" the system is
the specially designed Program Manager. The Program Manager is arranged
into groups of icons that define functional--work processing, spreadsheet,
etc.--rather than vendor divisions. In addition, there is an Information
Center that provides on-line documentation about the system and all README
files, including tutorials.

NEC has loaded all the specific video drivers on the disk, "turning on"
only the appropriate drivers. However, if the user wants to change the
driver, it can easily be done without loading diskettes. Keeping user
convenience in mind, NEC has incorporated learning aids, such as
WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3- support, as part of NEC Select Solutions
systems for business productivity applications.

We've also added several icons for a DOS window, to allow users to have
several simultaneous small DOS windows open (rather than a full screen)
along with other Windows applications. Also included is a Visual Basic
Library, necessary for programmers to use Microsoft's programming utility
on Select Solutions, without having to actually load Visual Basic. All
applications are set up to work together and share a document area for all
applications, eliminating "directory hopping."

NEC's Select Solutions have also been optimized from a standpoint of
performance as well as convenience. The performance optimization can be
measured by the enhancements made to the system hardware, as well as the
changes made in the operating system, operating environment and
application software set-up. Especially important are the enhancements
which make each Select Solution convenient and easy to use--which
translates into increased productivity. Once fully configured, each NEC
Select Solution system undergoes extensive performance, operational and
quality control testing to ensure that it is ready for immediate use and
will satisfy our customer.

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