The Regional Computing Organisation Network

Criteria The network was to satisfy the need for a large number (about 40) of Remote Job Entry (RJE) terminals, spread over a wide area, to access a number of mainframes. The mainframes were heterogeneous, and the RJE's were also based on a variety of manufacturers equipment. The mainframes had large operating systems which were difficult to modify and to maintain the modification over subsequent releases. The RJE workstations were or, more commonly, emulated either IBM 2780 or HASP terminals and the task of reprogramming these was also considered excessive. It was planned that, in the future, the network would carry file and interactive traffic, as well as the immediate requirement of RJE. The protocol structure had therefore to be a layered one, allowing for new applications. The hardware available at the time was based on Computer Technology Modular-1 processors, whose communications equipment was at that time somewhat cumbersome to program, and restricted to 9-6 K bits/sec.