Apple Open Transport Version 1.1 Reaches Beta

NetWorld+Interop, ATLANTA, Georgia--September 27, 1995--Apple Computer,
Inc. today announced that Apple Open Transport Version 1.1 has reached the
beta development milestone. Open Transport, the new standards-based
networking and communications system for Mac OS, began shipping earlier
this year as a standard feature of Apple's new PCI-based Power Macintosh
systems. Version 1.1 will bring the benefits of Open Transport to the
installed base of 680x0 and NuBus based Power Macintosh systems, and will
bring improved performance and compatibility to existing Open Transport
users.

Open Transport 1.1 New Features and Improvements

Open Transport Version 1.1 will add support for Macintosh computers with a
68030 or 68040 processor, and for existing Power Macintosh systems based
on the PowerPC 601 microprocessor. With Version 1.1 the majority of
Macintosh users will join existing PCI-bus Power Macintosh users and be
able to take advantage of Open Transport capabilities--including
reconfiguring networking without having to restart a system, the online
Apple Guide reference, and administrator-controlled configuration of
network connections. For developers, the availability of Open Transport
1.1 will mean that all mainstream Mac OS users can take advantage of their
Open Transport-ready applications.

Version 1.1 expands choices for network interface options, adding support
for existing NuBus-based Network Interface Cards and many SCSI-based
network adapters, new PCI-based token ring adapters, and, on select
Macintosh models, infrared and PCMCIA-based network connections.

Open Transport 1.0 offered a very high performance communications platform
on 10 Megabytes per second (Mbps) ethernet--up to 9.3 Mbps with TCP/IP.
Open Transport v1.1 is being optimized to allow networking applications
developers to take advantage of new, higher speed datalinks such as fast
ethernet, FDDI, and ATM.

"The first release of the Interphase 5515 PCI ATM adapter has already
broken the 90Mpbs mark using Apple's Open Transport over TCP, making it
the fastest networking adapter of any type on a Macintosh," said Ken
Restivo, Product Marketing Manager for ATM products at Interphase, a
leading supplier of desktop and server I/O products for high-speed
networks. "We're excited that Apple's internal labs have chosen Interphase
ATM adapters to help push the envelope of Open Transport performance. Our
work together demonstrates that Open Transport--in combination with the
PCI bus and the PowerPC chip--is comfortably able to deliver the high
networking throughput that Macintosh users have been demanding."

Open Transport Version 1.1 will also be the first release recommended for
the development of new Macintosh server applications, as it includes
optimizations for multi-client, multi-threaded usages via the native Open
Transport APIs. Open Transport Version 1.1 also includes application
programming interface (API) level support for multi-homing. Multi-homing
allows server developers to support more than one network interface at the
same time from within their application.

Finally, the delivery of Open Transport version 1.1 will also include
improvements and bug fixes developed since the release of Open Transport
1.0. Changes to the MacTCP backwards-compatibility support libraries
should result in significantly higher compatibility with third party
implementations of SLIP and PPP (such as MacSLIP and MacPPP) for dial-up
TCP/IP support, as well as provide improved compatibility with electronic
mail applications including Eudora from Qualcomm, and Claris
Em@iler.Changes to Open Transport/TCP should provide increased
interoperability with Windowsnotes will be available at first customer
ship.

Developer Support for Open Transport

Apple began the seeding of Open Transport to developers more than a year
ago. To date, more than 5,000 developers have been seeded with pre-release
versions of the product and several hundred developers are actively
working with Apple on development efforts. As a result, Apple is pleased
to announce that there are now more than 130 third party applications
tested as Open Transport-compatible.

"Our MacNFS product is both Power Mac native and Open Transport-ready."
said Bill Thursby, President of Thursby Systems Software, a software
company which engineers and markets connectivity solutions. "Using the
Open Transport/TCP stack substantially improves the performance of our
product vs. our competitor--and being first to market gives us a real
edge."

"We wanted to make our Macintosh communications as secure as what we had
done for our Sun workstations." said Ward Bathrick, Network Security
Architect at Hughes Systems, a division of Hughes Aircraft. "Because Open
Transport is standards-based, the learning curve was much lower and
working with the developer seeding program means that we already have
NetLock up and running for testing."

Customer Seeding Results

Apple began offering pre-release evaluation copies of Open Transport to
select Macintosh customers earlier this year, through the Open Transport
Early Access Program. This customer testing continues to be a valuable
source of input for the development of Open Transport Version 1.1, and
beyond.

"During the time I evaluated Open Transport beta releases, I was also
evaluating most of the Internet software available for the Mac, including
commercial, shareware, and freeware clients and servers." said Peter
Trudelle, a software engineer at NetManage, Inc. "Almost all of it worked
fine using backward compatibility, and the programs that actually took
advantage of it ran significantly faster. The improvement was dramatic,
you didn't need a stopwatch to tell the difference."

"I have found Open Transport to be a positive step forward in Mac
networking, adding greater consistency and better organization to
networking." said William P. White at the University of Tennessee at
Knoxville. "For such a fundamental change, its compatibility with current
TCP/IP applications is a quite remarkable."

Licensing Programs Announced

Apple is planning to offer two redistribution licensing agreements for Open
Transport v1.1. For software developers with products that adopt Open
Transport APIs, the license agreement will be based on the Mac OS SDK and
will allow developers to redistribute Open Transport to end-users as a
part of their product. Qualified developers will not pay any additional
license fees.

For Internet service providers, network and communications reference work
authors and publishers, and others interested in bundling Open Transport
software, the license is planned to be based on a per-unit license fee.

Further details on these agreements will be available soon. Interested
parties may send electronic mail to "OT.LICENSE@seeding.apple.com".

Availability

Open Transport v1.1 is currently expected to be available to customers late
in 1995, through a variety of options including: a no-charge upgrade for
customers with current MacTCP software maintenance agreements; a no-charge
upgrade for customers with current Mac OS system software maintenance
agreements; as a component of planned Mac OS system software updates;
bundled with Apple and third party software applications that are Open
Transport-ready; as a "shrink-wrap" software product in single-user,
multi-user, and volume license kits; and from select Apple-licensed
publishers and r and innovator in the information industry, creates
powerful solutions based on easy to use personal computers, servers,
peripherals, software, online services, and personal digital assistants.
Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) develops,
manufactures, licenses and markets products, technologies and services for
the business, education, consumer, scientific & engineering and government
markets in over 140 countries.

Customer Information Contact: If you are considering the purchase of an
Apple product and would like to have product information faxed to you,
please call 1-800-462-4396 in the U.S. or (415) 598-4329 in Canada. If you
do not have a fax machine or would like to locate an Apple authorized
reseller near you, please call 1-800-538-9696. Customers outside the U.S.
should contact their local Apple representatives for information.

Apple's home page on the World Wide Web: http://www.apple.com/
 
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