COMPUTER MEGA-SHOW UNDER WAY : THOUSANDS TAKE IN EXHIBITS AT GIANT FAIR.

Byline: Daily News and Wire Services

Who would pay big bucks to stand in hourlong cab lines, sleep in costly hotel rooms booked months in advance, squeeze through crushing crowds and fend off a five-day sensory assault?

The 210,000 people attending Comdex, that's who.

The biggest and most important computer industry show, which got under way Monday, affects billions of dollars worth of buying decisions.

More than 2,000 exhibitors, including industry giants like software maker Microsoft Corp. and chip maker Intel Corp., will introduce an estimated 10,000 new products here before the show ends Friday.

And even with 94,000 hotel rooms - more than any other American city - Las Vegas is overflowing.

``There are some people who stay in Arizona and fly in every day. And there are those who stay upward of 45 miles out of town at the California-Nevada border,'' said Rob Powers, spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The crush is proving costly. Comdex is charging exhibitors $44.95 per square foot, making its Las Vegas exhibit space some of the world's most expensive real estate.

Japan's Softbank Corp., which bought the Comdex show two years ago, will reap more than $60 million in rent for 1.35 million square feet of space at the show.

Meantime, at the show:

Microsoft unveiled a slimmed-down operating system, and seven companies announced the first products using the new Windows CE software.

The hand-held products by Casio Computer Co., Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Hitachi Ltd., LG Electronics, NEC Corp. and Philips Electronics NG are expected to go on sale next year for about $500.

Intel Corp. chief executive Andy Grove declared that the computer revolution will stall unless companies win the business of people who still spend their leisure time in front of television.

``Simply put, we are in a war for consumer eyeballs,'' Grove said in a keynote speech. ``We have to go after (consumers) with irresistible and compelling features.''

Thanks to improvements in microprocessors, personal computers have popularized the concept of multimedia entertainment.

But computers - and the microprocessors that run them - won't be able to keep up their phenomenal growth unless they enhance and combine those features with the realistic visual displays that consumers get from television, Grove said.

Only that will turn millions of couch potatoes into mouse potatoes.

``The key for us is to recognize that our business is not just about building and selling PCs,'' Grove said. ``The business we are in is the delivery of information and lifelike, interactive experiences.''

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Photo: (Color) Patricia Niemann shows the world's largest LCD panel Monday in the Sharp Corp. booth at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas.

Feature Photo Service