A Local Network Based on the UNIX Operating System

The design and implementation of a local network operating ystem based on the UNIX
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operating system is described. UNIX has been extended to allow existing programs to access remote resources with no source program changes. Programs may access remote files, have a remote working directory, execute remote programs, and communicate with remote processes using the standard UNIX interprocess communication mechanism (pipe's). An efficient message-oriented interprocess communication mechanism and asynchronous I/O were added to the system to support the development of distributed applications and to make it easier to connect the local network to packet-switched networks.