American Telephone & Telegraph and a group...

American Telephone & Telegraph and a group of its competitors have come to the negotiating table to resolve a dispute over creating a standard version of AT&T;’s Unix software system, the giant communications firm said. Unix, which AT&T; developed two decades ago, is software used to control the basic functions of a computer. AT&T; and the group, called the Open Software Foundation, have been at odds over who will direct a project to meld the many existing variations of Unix into a single version that could serve as a standard for the industry. The foundation’s members include IBM, Digital Equipment and Hewlett-Packard.