SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY : NASA Receives 30 of AST’s Fastest PCs for Weather Analysis

AST Research said it has delivered the fastest personal computer the company has ever built to NASA for use in analyzing weather data that is used to generate cloud satellite photos for newspapers and TV stations.

Irvine-based AST said it has sent 30 of its Premium 486/25 PCs to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. AST said the space agency will also use the PCs, which retail for about $10,000 each, for examining atmospheric conditions for space shuttle launches as well as the status of the “greenhouse” effect.

“At NASA we receive 13 satellite weather images every 30 minutes,” said Briscoe Stephens, a manager at NASA’s Earth Science and Applications Division. He said the AST equipment will be used to analyze the images and produce high-quality graphics hard copy.

AST is one of the first PC makers to begin shipping models incorporating the super-fast i486 microchip manufactured by Intel Corp., the Santa Clara semiconductor company.