Abstract: A system and method for implementing a ring bus in an emulation environment is disclosed. The ring bus provides an extra communication channel between a ring master node and target nodes on the ring bus for communicating any desired information. In one aspect, the ring bus includes the ring master node and a plurality of target nodes coupled together in series. The first and last target nodes in the series are coupled to the ring master node to form a first communication channel that is a closed loop. The ring bus also includes a plurality of secondary communication channels, separate from the closed loop, connecting, individually, selected target nodes and the ring master node. In another aspect, the secondary communication channels are used as event flags and are a direct connection from the target nodes to the ring master node without traversing other target nodes.