Trigem said it had developed a mass production system for multimedia PCs which would be sold at $499 per unit. Without a monitor, the unit would cost $399.

"There are PCs which currently cost less than $500 in the US market. However, they do not have the CD-ROM or the modem features that we have incorporated into our products," said Kim Sun-joo at Trigem.

Already orders had been flowing in, he said.

Trigem said the computer would come with a mini-ATX motherboard, 266-300 megahertz central processor, 32 megabytes of Ram, graphics card, a 3.2 gigabyte hard disk drive, 3.5 inch floppy disk drive, 24-32X speed CD-ROM drive, audio card, 56 kbps modem and Windows 98 operating system.

Trigem had received orders for 180,000 units from the United States. E-machines, a company jointly set up in the UnitedStates by Trigem and Korea Data Systems -- which makes monitors -- will be in charge of distributing the new PCs.

Sotec and T-Zone of Japan have ordered more than 30,000 units. Orders from countries in South America and China are also coming in steadily through the Internet, Kim said.

The firm is hoping to post annual sales of 1.5 trillion won in 1999 ($1.1 billion), double the total for 1997. By the year 2000, the firm projected its annual sales would reach two trillion won.

South Korea has been seeking to increase its share of the lucrative US computer market. Korean PC makers hold about a two-per cent market share in the United States, according to the Korea Investment-Trade Promotion Agency (KOTRA).

"While the lower-end computer market in the United States is relatively unstable compared to the higher-end of the spectrum, it is easier to break in," Kim Doo-young, an assistant manager at KOTRA's market research department, said.

However, securities analysts were cautious about the venture'sprofitability because Trigem has set a one per cent profit margin on the new PCs.