At a speech in Washington on Tuesday, Acer chairman and chief executive Stan Shih will detail plans for what his company calls its XC, or X Computer, to distinguish it from traditional PCs, or personal computers.

Acer's strategy is to build personal computer technologies into a wide range of XC devices priced from $200 to $1,000 -- far less than most general-purpose PCs now sold, he said.

Among the products Acer plans to offer starting later this year are a kid's computer priced at $199 and aetwo pound sub-notebook computer for students and journalists priced at between $600 and $700, Shih said in a phone interview Monday.

Other examples of Acer's plans include devices that connect to a television set to provide home-banking, TV-based Internet access, or control of home security alarmsystems, he said.

XCs are designed to extend the potential audience for PCs well beyond the 5 per cent of the world who now have access to personal computers.

which are more costly and difficult to use, he said. "The PC will not disappear, nor will XCs replace the PC,"Shih said.

"A better solution is to 'disintegrate' many of these technologies and create solutions that do very specific tasks very well, all the time,"he said.

Instead, software will be pre-programmed to accomplish particular tasks and computer processing will take place in the background, eliminating the complexity associated with PCs.

The XCs would be more like appliances with only one use, much like a toaster, a VCR, or a microwave oven.

By relying on existing PC hardware, software and Internet standards, Acer will take advantage of the high-volume, low-cost economics which fuelled the PC boom while avoiding the perils of developing new, unproven technologies, Shih said.

Because Acer makes not just PCs, but most of thecomponents used inside PCs, Acer is poised to benefit however the market for PC components takes shape, be it for PCs or XCs, he added.

Kevin Hause, consumer PC analyst at International Data Corp., said that as PC market growth has slowed in recent years, computer makers have begun to look for ways to inject computing powers into a wider range of consumer electronics.

"By leaving out all the flexibility that's inherent in the general purpose PC, Acer can make products that are more simple and elegant," Hause said.

"Acer sees this as a big opportunity and is diving in head first," he said.

By contrast, Hause said other major computer makers have shown reluctance to cannibalize their existing consumer PC businesses by offering lower-cost, PC-enabled consumer electronics.

"We really haven't seen the IBM's, Compaq's and, to some degree, the Sony's of the world take anything more than hesitant steps to enter this market," Hause said.

Shih plans to outline five basic XC categories for products Acer willmanufacture and sell both under its own brand and for other manufacturers that will make use of Acer XC components.

The Acer executive will announce the XC product plans during a keynote speech in Washington on Tuesday at the 1998 World Congress on Information Technology. Shih first revealed the XC strategy in a speech last November in San Francisco.

Acer's XC products will rely on Intel- compatible X86 microprocessors and run software based on Internet standards and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating systems -- the basis for most of the personal computers now operating.

The products will use not only chips from Intel Corp but also from rivals Advanced Micro Devices Inc, National Semiconductor Corp. and even Acer's own microprocessor production plants.