Digital Equipment Corp., reacting to rising microchip...

Digital Equipment Corp., reacting to rising microchip costs, lifted prices on most of its computers by about 3.5% and on memory expansion products by 35%, a move that could spark a round of price hikes by computer makers. Soaring semiconductor costs, the result of a severe shortage of memory chips, have already forced several companies to boost prices or delay the introduction of new products that require large amounts of memory. The price of 256-kilobyte DRAMs, the most common memory chip, has nearly doubled in the past six months. Gray market prices have risen as much as fivefold.