An OASIS simulation of the ZNET microcomputer network

Abstract

This paper describes an implementation and simulation model of Zilog's ZNET, a Z80A microcomputer based local network. The network consists of a number of Zilog MCZ-2 microcomputer systems which communicate and share disk storage, line printers, and other devices using a passive coaxial cable. Each MCZ-2 node can support multiple processes and messagetransmission between processes within one node, across nodes, and between processes and shared devices. The OASIS Programming Language is used to model network hardware and implement the operating system kernal which supports this message transmission facility. OASIS has been designed for the implementation of multicomputer system software and the simulated execution of this software by modelled system hardware. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the implementation of ZNET software using OASIS. This OASIS implementation provides both a specification of network software and a model which can be simulated to predict network performance.