IBM will sell a device that creates a digital network for the home in time for Christmas next year, as the company angles for a market that its top personal computer idea executive calls the last frontier.

Code-named the Home Network, it is one of the top projects of chairman Mr Louis Gerstner. The development stretches across the company's divisions, not just limited to IBM PC, according to Mr Trey Smith, chief technology officer for the PC unit.

Market research firms such as International Data Corp and Dataquest are projecting 300 million people around the globe will be on the Web in the next three to five years.

"The home is really a wide open field of opportunity," Mr Smith said. "What's ahead is really a radically different world from the stand-alone PC."

The Home Network product will be built around a computer server, which stores and manages information on networks, that IBM will call a digital information appliance, Mr Smith said.

Attached to this box would be such devices as a digital video disk player for movies and games, a scanner, printer, monitors and fax, all connected using wireless transmission rather than wires and cables.

The price of the system will depend on how many printers, monitors and network computers the customer would want, Mr Smith said. Initially, it could cost around $3,000 (£2,040) for a basic set up, with prices falling quickly after that.

The network computer, or NC, was in its infancy, and in 10 years that type of device would outsell the PC, said Mr Smith.

The NC has been touted as the best way to reduce the cost of computing for companies because network administrators can upgrade, modify and maintain the NCs and the software they use all from a central location.