IBM Advances Ability of Telephones and Computers to Work Together Through
Support of Versit Collaboration

NEW YORK, November 30, 1994 . . . IBM's initiatives towards openness and
interoperability -- the ability of diverse computers, telephones, and
other communications devices from different manufacturers to easily work
together -- took another major step forward today with the announcement of
Versit, the collaborative effort of IBM, Apple, AT&T and Siemens.

As one of the founding partners, IBM is playing an important role by
contributing skills and technology to the development of Versit
specifications and supporting the specifications in IBM products.

Versit is aimed at identifying, developing and promoting open technical
specifications to advance the compatible exchange of information among a
wide variety of devices, such as personal computers, Personal Digital
Assistants (PDAs) and telephones. Versit specifications will help break
down the barriers between the worlds of telecommunications and computing
by enabling these devices to "speak the same language." This will make it
easier for people at work, at home, or on the road to exchange information
and communicate, no matter what device they may be using.

Versit furthers IBM's strategy of establishing leadership in the emerging
network-centric computing market, in which people subscribe to
applications and services on high-speed networks and access information
anytime, anywhere, using any device and format they want.

"The revolution promised by the convergence of telecommunications and
computing will not reach its full potential unless our industries agree to
open, interoperable standards that make using a PDA, telephone and
notebook computer together as easy as turning on the different components
of a stereo system," said Ellen M. Hancock, IBM senior vice president and
group executive. "IBM is committed to being a leader in making information
accessible anywhere, in any form, at any time, for any user. Versit is
uniquely positioned to help us get there because it is a small enough
group of companies to get things done, but large and diverse enough to
make an impact."

IBM is embracing the Versit specifications, which will be set forth this
year and next in the areas of voice, video, data and networking. IBM today
announced support for specific Versit efforts in the following areas:

Collaboration

IBM's Person to Person desktop conferencing software enables real-time,
multimedia collaboration that turns the desktop into an interactive
meeting tool. The next version of Person to Person will utilize IBM's
Lakes Collaborative Networking Architecture, which allows video
conferencing and other collaborative applications to work across
multi-vendor platforms.

IBM announced that Person to Person and Lakes will support adapters
utilizing the H.320 standard for ISDN-based video conferencing as is
consistent with Versit's specification. Integrated Services Digital
Network (ISDN) capabilities enable the digitized transmission of voice and
video signals.

Connecting and Exchanging Information

Infrared Data Transport. IBM today reaffirmed its commitment to the
Infrared Data Association (IrDA) specifications for wireless data
interchange as endorsed by Versit. Exchanging data through wireless
connections with an infrared (IR) link provides users with a convenient
and inexpensive method for "beaming" data between devices such as PDAs,
notebook computers, telephones and other office equipment. Users can
simply "point and shoot" to exchange electronic business cards, or they
can use their phone directory stored in their PDA to place telephone calls
without wire connections.

Currently, IBM provides an IrDA-compliant link on its recently-announced
ThinkPad 755CE, and will provide IR capability on future mobile products,
workstations and adapters.

IBM is already actively involved as a member of IrDA and will continue to
work closely with IrDA and the Versit partners on future requirements for
a wide range of devices.

Structured Data Exchange. Today, because of the lack of standards, people
cannot transmit and exchange information with consistent formats across
mobile devices, such as PDAs and laptop computers manufactured by
different companies. Versit has developed a common format for interchange
of personal information called Personal Data Interchange Specifications
(PDIS). PDIS is based on Bento, a portable object storage library which is
part of the OpenDoc component software architecture from Component
Integration Laboratories (CI Labs). PDIS will be used by IBM and its
Versit partners for business card exchange.

Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI)

IBM will extend its CallPath product family to support a wider range of
clients by adopting a Versit telephony services application programming
interface (API), providing current and future CallPath customers with a
wider application portfolio to select from.

CTI links telephone functions and business applications to enhance end-user
productivity. IBM's CallPath family currently supports personal computers
running OS/2 or Windows, and workstations running AIX or other versions of
UNIX.

IBM will work with its Versit partners to simplify CTI application
development and enhance CTI application portability. As part of this
effort, Versit is incorporating IBM's CallPath Services Architecture
normalization technology, which allows a single telephony application to
be written for and work across a wide range of PBX switches.

Other IBM support

Many IBM divisions, such as the IBM Global Network, develop products and
services that support network-centric computing, and will work to
integrate Versit specifications into their offerings as those
specifications become available.

The world of information exchange enhanced through the adoption of Versit
specifications can be leveraged through other IBM networking and device
technologies. These include networking technologies such as ATM, or
Asynchronous Transfer Mode, which provides powerful transmission and
bandwidth advantages; multimedia technologies; powerful PCMCIA chip
technologies; wireless technologies; operating system software; and
systems management software.

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