For the first four months of the year, foreign orders rose 85.6 percent, to $162.6 million.
Orders rose 35 percent from the $135.2 million of September 1986.
Within the company's computer business, orders rose 28 percent, to $6.4 billion.
Orders rose 69.5 percent for all of 1988, the highest total since 1980.
Orders rose 7.2 percent through the first quarter of last year.
The company said total orders for the third quarter rose 27 percent, to $6 billion.
Orders had risen for three months, including a 2.2 percent increase in March.
Total orders rose 23 percent, to $462.3 million, from those of December.
The Franciscan religious order rose to power in the city.
Most analysts had expected to learn that orders rose slightly last month.