Bolt, Beranek & Newman Inc’s BBN Communications Inc, Cambridge, Massachusetts teamed with Tandem Computers Inc’s Ungermann-Bass to combine Asynchronous Transfer Mode products to offer a seamless integration of local and wide area networks that support emerging high-bandwidth multimedia applications. The two call their combination Total Area ATM Networking, TAN. The partners each plan to develop scalable Asynchronous Transfer Mode products that support integration of local and wide area networks, bandwidth on demand for local net interconnections, guaranteed bandwidth for real-time applications, and cost-effective bandwidth management for wide area communication. They also view integrated network management for ATM networks as pivotal to the TAN vision. Ungermann will license parts of BBN’s Aynchronous Transfer switch technology and integrate it into future products and both will sell each other’s future Asynchronous Transfer kit worldwide. Asynchronous Transfer Mode, the core of Broadband ISDN, is an emerging technology based on cell-switching using fixed-length 53-byte cells, and supports extremely rapid switching of those cells, reducing the latency problems caused by current systems.