Chips used for more powerful multimedia personal computers were also in strong demand, the company said.

The company also launched a line of multimedia personal computers and a bubblejet printer.

The Living Books series can be used on a color Macintosh or a multimedia personal computer.

Multimedia personal computers, for example, combine on-screen video, graphics, text and stereo sound.

I.B.M. is among a number of computer makers promoting multimedia personal computers.

Multimedia personal computers contain extra memory, a compact disk player and special graphics capability compared with regular PC's.

This year, it has the opposite problem with a new multimedia personal computer, the Aptiva line, which it introduced to the home market earlier this month.

I.B.M. executives have publicly described a new product line they call multimedia personal computers that will offer video and sound features not available on today's machines.

Growth in Multimedia One sure sign of the growing market for new home software is the surge in sales of multimedia personal computers.

Philips introduced its first multimedia personal computers this month at Cebit, the information technology offshoot of the Hanover Fair.

The new chip, which powers I.B.M.'s new multimedia personal computer, is rated up to 88 percent faster than Intel's chip.

The CD-ROM, for Windows-based multimedia personal computers, contains detailed descriptions of the ski centers, with audio, video clips, maps and photographs.

Multimedia personal computers, equipped with CD-ROM drives, for playing the silvery disks that can store everything from dictionaries to movies, are expected to be popular Christmas gifts.

I.B.M. displayed six chips yesterday for use in the next generation of professional digital video and audio equipment, multimedia personal computers and work stations, and digital set-top boxes.

Microsoft Home Reference products brought information to Multimedia Personal Computers - it was an effective way of presenting and exploring information before the World Wide Web became mainstream.

As Manager of Operating Systems he was asked to design a new operating system for the Amiga, an advanced multimedia personal computer system that later became the Commodore Amiga.

Onsale customers typically save 20 to 30 percent off the original prices of the equipment, like a refurbished 100-megahertz or 166-megahertz Pentium multimedia personal computer, said Jerry Kaplan, chief executive of Onsale.

Mr. Rosensteel said Zenith Data was developing a multimedia personal computer for introduction in 1991, but that it would be based on the Intel 386 or 386SX microprocessors, rather than the slower 286.

"We expect to do extremely well this Christmas season," he said, ticking off a series of products that shoppers are enamored of, like multimedia personal computers, the latest generation of high-speed modems and video enhancers.

MPC, or Multimedia Personal Computer - A souped-up computer system that meets all the standards of the Multimedia Computing Marketing Council and can thus wear the MPC logo.

The new division, which will be formally announced later this year and has still not been named, will bring several of the International Business Machines Corporation's consumer-oriented products, like multimedia personal computers and software, under one umbrella.

The Hewlett-Packard Company said yesterday that as expected it had named the San Francisco office of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide to handle its Pavilion line of home multimedia personal computers.

To run multimedia applications in the I.B.M. PC-compatible world, it is necessary either to purchase a specialized multimedia personal computer or to obtain an upgrade kit to run applications stored on CD-ROM.

William Gates, chairman of the Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest software company, has had limited success convincing computer makers to adhere to a standard for making multimedia personal computers aimed more at business and education than at the entertainment market.

A Computer Toy is a creative, compelling piece of hardware, which plugs into a standard multimedia personal computer and is aimed at a specific purpose, to be brought to life with equally compelling multimedia software, aimed at the same purpose.