TECHNOLOGY : Apple Links to IBM, Digital Expected

Apple Computer is expected to introduce broad new capabilities Monday for linking its popular Macintosh computers to International Business Machines and Digital Equipment Corp. mainframes and minicomputers, analysts said.

The development is a major departure for Apple, which has long stuck to its own standard, even after IBM entered the personal computer market in 1981 with a different operating system. It has been extremely difficult and costly to exchange data between Apple machines, which originally had a proprietary standard, and much-copied IBM-compatible machines.

“That’s the old bugaboo--Apple has always had to prove it’s a mainstream vendor,” said Steve Ossad, an analyst at Montgomery Securities. “Now you will be able to take data developed on your IBM and use it on your Apple.”