Design and Implementation of an Input/Output Interface Protocol for the INTEL 432/670 Computer System.

Distributed computer systems have many advantages to offer in terms of simplicity, efficiency, protection, and security as well as improved performance from the concurrency in such a system. Communication among distributed processors is a key issue in the design of a distributed system. While the lower levels of a communication system are generally defined by the hardware configuration and thus, implementation dependent, protocols for communication may be developed at higher levels that are independent of the hardware implementation. Using the Computer Based Message System under the development for the National Bureau of Standards, this thesis investigation is an attempt to develop a usable IO interface for a distributed computer system. The Intel 432 Micromainframe computer system is a functionally distributed multiprocessor system. The hardware organization and operating system features lend themselves to the implementation of a message based communication system among users and devices on distinct processor. This specific research effort involves defining the protocol requirements, as well as designing, implementing and testing a distributed IO system communication interface on the 432 computer system. Author