Editing Stratus VOS (section)

==Open StrataLINK==
VOS has always been a network-aware operating system.  Virtually every system call in the native API has a parameter that determines what computer the operation affects.<ref>{{cite web|title=OpenVOS C Subroutines|url=http://stratadoc.stratus.com/vos/17.2.0/r068-13/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm?context=r068-13&file=ch1r068-13.html|publisher=Stratus Technologies}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=January 2016}}<ref>{{cite web|title=OpenVOS PL/1 Subroutines|url=http://stratadoc.stratus.com/vos/17.2.0/r005-16/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm?context=r005-16&file=ch1r005-16.html|publisher=Stratus Technologies}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=January 2016}}  If the operation isn't local, it is redirected to the target computer via [[Remote procedure call|remote subroutine call]].  For example, file names are parsed to indicate which computer the file resides on.

The StrataLINK networking model has a two level hierarchy for naming computers:  Each computer is called a ''module'' and ''modules'' are aggregated into ''systems''.  Each ''system'' is administered as a unit.  In other words, all of the modules in a system are aware of all the disks and hardware devices on that system.  The result of this is that a file name that begins with the system name refers to files on other computers and can be opened without the need for any special networking.  The same is true for devices.  Other system entities, such as processes, are referenced using ''module names'' which are written %''system''#''module''.  The VOS system and module names have no defined relationship with IP addresses or domain names—The VOS API was developed in late 1980—before the Internet was widely adopted and long before URLs were even invented.

Historically, StrataLINK was a proprietary 10Mb [[CSMA/CD]] ring network which allowed high performance (for the time) with very low memory overhead and CPU utilization.  This was never developed beyond 10Mb and was dropped in favor of using TCP/IP because Ethernet became the dominant networking standard and because memory and CPU processing got cheaper.

Open StrataLINK can also use X.25 for wide area communications.  Using the Open StrataLINK protocols for wide area communications is also referred to as StrataNET.