Apple in Pact With Digital

The New York Times

San Francisco -- January 15, 1988 -- Apple Computer Inc. and the Digital Equipment Corporation, as expected, formally announced a joint development effort aimed at developing products to connect Apple Macintosh machines and Digital VAX computers.

The agreement, announced here today by Kenneth H. Olsen, president of Digital, and John Sculley, chairman of Apple, is intended to allow Apple, a leader in personal computers, and Digital, the leader in midsize minicomputers, to offer an alternative to the International Business Machines Corporation in providing corporate customers with complex computer networks.

No products were formally introduced, though Mr. Olsen said in an interview that the first products are likely to be announced in the summer.

In their agreement, both Digital and Apple are supporting a proposed networking standard known as the Open Systems Interconnection model, which is being developed by an international committee. Other vendors will thus also be able to connect to such networks.

While I.B.M. has also said it will support O.S.I., the company's primary emphasis has been on a different system of its own known as Systems Network Architecture.