SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 26, 1993 -- Members of the APPI Forum votedyesterday to disband the group after deciding they would no longer pursuedevelopment of the Advanced Peer-to-Peer Internetworking technology, aproposed open-systems alternative to IBM's Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking(APPN). The APPI Forum members will continue to pursue the opening of APPNthrough IBM's AIW; and, concurrently, work within the Internet EngineeringTask Force (IETF) to enhance open systems APPN alternatives. The APPI Forummembers will also focus on the development of the Data Lin Switching (DLSw)interoperability standard in the newly formed DLSw Working Group.

The decision follows an August 10 announcement by Cisco Systems that itwould not seek from IBM the patent rights required to implement APPI andAPPN enhancements.

At the meeting, members of the multivendor group cited key gainsrealized by the industry in the past year -- IBM's publishing of the APPNspecifications, licensing of related patents and establishment of the APPNImplementors' Workshop -- which resulted from APPI's presence in the market.Despite these gains, Forum members acknowledged that APPN remains aproprietary solution whose evolution is controlled by IBM.

Forum members may address their users' requirements for SNApeer-to-peer networking by licensing APPN technology from IBM, pursuingapproaches that combine SNA and TCP/IP technologies, and/or offeringalternative solutions based on open-standards architectures such as TCP/IP,OSI and ATM.

APPI was conceived as an open SNA networking solution that combines thesophisticated internetworking features of TCP/IP networks with SNApeer-to-peer communication. The APPI Forum, formed in October 1992 topromote APPI development and standardization, had 27 members.