STREAMS query

[Dave Brownell]

A while ago, I saw some trade press announcements about AT&T providing
a "streams" interface for networking sometime early '86.  More recently
I've seen press about a working network file system (distinct from NFS)
using "streams".

My question is -- what are they?  Can anyone direct me to accurate
descriptions of interfaces, functionality, etc.?  (Are they out yet?)
I've seen the October 1984 BSTJ, with an article by Dennis Ritchie about
them (focused on terminal operations).  Do they provide the same
functionality that Berkeley sockets do?  Is there any hot gossip?
-- 
David Brownell
EnMasse Computer Corp
...!{harvard,talcott,genrad}!enmasse!dave