We introduce the wire calculus. Its dynamic features are inspired by Milner's
CCS: a unary prefix operation, binary choice and a standard recursion
construct. Instead of an interleaving parallel composition operator there are
operators for synchronisation along a common boundary and non-communicating
parallel composition. The (operational) semantics is a labelled transition
system obtained with SOS rules. Bisimilarity is a congruence with respect to
the operators of the language. Quotienting terms by bisimilarity results in a
compact closed category