A distributed control interface for managing interoperability and concurrency among agents and system resources in a computer system. The distributed control interface provides access to system resources to all versions of authorized agents that are capable of interoperating with the resources...http://www.google.de/patents/US5832483?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US5832483 - Distributed control interface for managing the interoperability and concurrency of agents and resources in a real-time environment 
