A group of 18 US and Japanese makers of computer, network and office equipment came together yesterday to announce plans to form a consortium to produce an open specification for linking office machines. IBM Corp is in the team, but it is not clear how this ties in with the initiative launched by IBM Japan Ltd in May. The consortium has taken the temporary working title of SmartOffice Consortium, and says the specifications would link copiers, printers, phones, and facsimile machines with personal computers and handheld personal communicators. The association will include Advanced Peripherals Technologies Inc, Integrated Systems Inc, Eastman Kodak Co, Lexmark International Inc, Novell Inc, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, Fuji Xerox Ltd, Fujitsu Ltd, Canon Inc, Minolta Co Ltd, Mita Industrial Co Ltd, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Murata Machinery Ltd, Ricoh Co Ltd and Sanyo Electric Co Ltd. Technical development of a specification, with the working title SmartLink Architecture, began several months ago, the consortium said. A draft version of the SmartLink Architecture and application programming interface will be published to members for review in the spring.
